
Book, - Alte r 



GqipghtN?._122/. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSfT. 



THE PRINCIPLES OE SPEECH 



A 

TEXT-BOOK 

FOR 

AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE 



BY 

GLENN NEWTON MERRY 

DEPARTMENT OP SPEECH 
UNIVERSITY OP IOWA 



2255 

COPY NUMBEB 



THE CLIO PRESS 

IOWA CITY, IOWA 
1921 



,*l 






DEDICATED 

TO 
L. H. M. 



©CI.A627581 



(Second Edition) 

Copyright 1921 

by 

Glenn Newton Merry 



m -4 Kr2i 



CONTENTS 

Pag* 

Summary of Principles ir 

Preface ix 

Introduction xi 

Chapter I 
Attention and Interest 1 

Chapter II 
Effective Speaking 29 

Chapter III 
Outline Arrangement 50 

Chapter IV 
Coordination of Thought with Voice and Action .... 57 

Chaptbr V 
Articulation and Pronunciation 80 

Chapter VI 
The Speech Instrument 100 

Selectio-ns 118 

Appendix 169 

iii 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES 



Page 
1. Understand the Relation between the Science and Art 

of Speaking 2 



2. Consider the Principles of Attention and Interest . 3 

3. Enable the Auditor to Give Attention Involuntarily . 5 

4. Make Allowance for Attention Fluctuation ... 6 

5. Find an Interest in What You Say ..... & 



6. Your Thought Must Appeal to Your Auditor as Well 

as to Yourself 8 



7. Adapt Your Thought to Your Auditor .... 11 



8. Use Words and Phraseology Adapted to the Subject and 

Occasion 12 



9. Use Terse instead of Involved Sentences, as a Rule . 12 



10. Be Clear 13 

iv 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES v 

Page 

11. Be Logical 16 

12. Use Correct Grammar 16 

13. Be Sociable 16 

14. Vary the Pitch of the Voice ....... 19 

15. Vary the Intensity of the Voice 20 

16. Develop an Agreeable Quality of Voice .... 20 

17. Articulate and Enunciate Each Sound Distinctly . . 21 

18. Pronounce Words Acceptably 21 

19. Action Stimulates Attention and Interest ... 22 



20. Develop Poise, Posture, and Gesture Interpretative of 

the Thought You Wish to Communicate ... 22 



21. Be Natural 22 

22. Strive for Ease 23 

23. Develop the Ability to Think in the Presence of Others 30 

24. Speak for a Dominant Purpose 40 



vi THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Page 

25. Debate to Establish Truth, Not for the Sake of Argu- 

ment 41 

26. Understand the Use of Evidence 42 



27. Appeal to Specific Thought Habits for Effective Per- 
suasive Suggestion 44 



28. Look at Your Auditor, Not at the Floor, Ceiling, or Sky 46 

29. Use Serious or Humorous Discussion and Illustration of 

Your Thought as You Think Each Contributes to 
Effectiveness 46 

30. Establish Your Point 46 



31. Select the Mode of Delivery that Best Enables You to 

Accomplish Your Dominant Purpose .... 46 



32. Go Over Points of Preliminary Outline Aloud . . 52 

33. Observe the Qualities of Good Usage in Oral Style . 55 

34. Practice Speaking from Permanent Outlines ... 55 

35. Coordinate Your Thought with Voice and Action . . 57 

36. Speak Conversationally 58 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES vii 

Page 
37. Make Meaning Clear by Emphasis 61 



38. Communicate Emotion by the Forms of Emphasis Plus 

Voice Quality 68 



39. Construct a Correct Auditory Image of Each Vowel . 88 

40. Develop the Correct Auditory Image for Each Consonant 90 

41. Understand the Principles of Training .... 101 



42. Train for the Skillful Control of the Muscles Regu- 
lating the Speaking Breath 106 



43. Understand Hoiv the Chest Functions .... 107 



44. Speak with an Adequately Filled Chest .... 110 



45. Train for Control of the Three Forms of Speech Ex- 
halation Ill 



46. Train for Control of Pitch 114 

47. Train for Control of Intensity -, 116 



PREFACE 

There is need it seems to me for more books that can be 
used in beginning courses, introductory to public speaking, 
reading, dramatic art, etc. The book for the beginning 
course must not dwell too much on the principles of public 
speaking as such. Relatively few students, especially in 
required courses in our schools, aspire to become capable 
public speakers, and of those who cherish such aspirations 
still a smaller number ever will succeed. The demand, 
therefore, is for a book that deals with the general factors 
of everyday speaking. 

As to the need of such training in our schools, I need only 
to point to the increasing demand for speech education, oral 
English, etc., apparent in most of our States. 

Nothing is claimed for this book beyond an attempt to 
meet this need for such an introductory text. Its defects 
are many, no doubt; teachers will feel, in some instances, 
that much more should have been included, others less, of 
public speaking, reading, argumentation, etc. This is 
largely because our courses are not sufficiently standard- 
ized; the problem of one school is approached from the 
viewpoint of argumentation; in another, from reading; in 
another from dramatics and in another from vocational and 
everyday speaking. 

Credit is due to writers in this field, too numerous to 
mention, whose contributions are standard and well known 
to students of this literature; to publishers who have al- 
lowed the use of copyright material; to members of the 
staff of the Department of Speech at the University of 
Iowa, for helpful suggestions ; to Professor C. E. Seashore, 
Dean of the Graduate College, for inspiration and advice ; 
and to my wife, for assistance immeasurable. 

Glenn Newton Mekky 

Iowa City 



THE PKINCIPLES OF SPEECH 
INTRODUCTION 

The first question confronting the student of speech is its 
purpose; why do you speak? Why do you speak to other people? 
"What purpose do you expect to satisfy? "What are the ends of 
conversation? The answer may be made that we are social indi- 
viduals. We enjoy ourselves to the degree we can exchange ideas, 
feelings, emotions, experiences. No individual lives to himself 
alone. There is a pleasure, a joy, in social intercourse. We like 
to exchange mental concepts. We find a satisfaction in learning 
of the experiences through which others have passed. Furthermore, 
there is a practical service in speech. If we desire anything, it is 
necessary to ask for it. We develop this information early in 
childhood. The child's word, "Me," is a sentence. It is a request 
for something. It is the child's way of asking for what he wants. 
The deaf and dumb person is shut up to a world of himself. He 
does not know of the experiences of others only in so far as it is 
possible for him to gain these through certain media of expression 
taught him, or that he develops for himself. But we who possess 
powers of speech and a sense of hearing, develop language: a 
language made up of words and of the media of expression, to 
communicate our wants and our experiences. We may say, then, 
that the motives for speech are (1) a desire on our part to express 
some feeling or idea to another individual; (2) a desire on the part 
of somebody to hear what we have to say, — to know of some experi- 
ences we have passed through. These may be summarized by say- 
ing we speak to communicate thoughts and feelings to one another. 

Let this statement of the purpose of speech together with the 
following interrogations form the basis for a class discussion in 
order that a viewpoint may be established at the beginning of your 
work. 

1. To what extent is silence a form of expression? 

2. How do the kinds of speaking differ; what are the charac- 
teristics of each: 



xii THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

a. Social conversation (avocational) 

b. Vocational conversation 

c. Public address 

d. Reading aloud 

e. Impersonation 

f. Dramatic art 

3. Fundamentally, are the principles of speaking the same for 
the kinds of speaking listed in question 2 ; why ? 

The next consideration confronting the student is the relation- 
ship between speech and the other forms of expression. 

4. How and when is speech less or more effective than other 
forms of expression in convejang thought? 

5. Wherein does speech differ from other forms of expression? 
The third consideration is the specific nature of speech, — 

6. Does thinking involve language ? Is there any connection be- 
tween your ability to think specifically and your ability to find 
words to express your meanings ? Do you find that you can express 
your ideas best by writing them on paper? By gesture language, 
by speech, or by both ? 

7. To what extent does action — pantomime and gesture — ex- 
press ideas? 

8. To what extent may the modulations of the voice bring out 
and amplify the meaning of words? Says Professor Curry, — 

"Read the following lines in two ways, — first, as an abstract 
statement of fact; and secondly, suggesting as much depth of 
meaning as possible, and note the chief differences in the rendering. 

Two prisoners looked out from behind their bars; 
One saw the mud, — the other saw the stars. 

"In the first rendering the words follow each other almost con- 
tinuously; in the second, there are many pauses, variations, and 
modulations of the voice. While the words remain the same, the 
impression caused by the two renderings are very different, and 
the elements which cause this difference cannot be clearly defined. 

"These unprintable elements constitute delivery. They are dis- 
tinct from words and have a meaning of their own, for though all 
the modulations of the voice are directly associated with words, 
they express that which words cannot say." 



THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Chapter I 

ATTENTION AND INTEREST 

The importance of interesting and effective speaking in everyday- 
life is an established fact. Good conversationalists and public 
speakers are born, we say, nevertheless it is also a fact that one's 
ability to engage interestingly in conversation or public address 
can be improved by training. 

It is the desire of the author in the following pages to treat 
the whole subject of speech rather than any one phase, — such as 
formal public speaking, debate, or salesmanship, etc. The prin- 
ciples of speech are much the same from the fundamental point of 
view whether the individual is engaged in an informal conversation 
with a friend, discussing a topic of mutual interest, or giving a 
public address before an audience of ten thousand people. True, 
the activities are very different, but the difference exists more in 
the detail than in the broad application of principles. The writer 
does not wish the student to expect from these pages specific in- 
structions in public speaking, but wishes him to keep in mind 
that there are certain excellencies that should characterize all 
speech, whether before a large audience, or in company with a 
small group of individuals; and that there are certain tendencies 
that should be avoided. Relatively a small number of students as- 
pire to becoming public speakers compared with the number that 
wish to develop ability in the types of speaking met with in daily 
life. Reference will be made from time to time to public speaking 
as one form of speech activity, but also reference will be made to 
conversation, to salesmanship and other forms of communication 
that demand the development of ability. Public speaking should 
be emphasized as such and might well be a subject to follow the 
training outlined in this text. 

The writer hopes he does not misunderstand, in the main, the 
magnitude of the difficulties to be met in attempting to outline 
the principles of effective every day speaking. The reading, 



2 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

merely, of a text-book on the principles of speech will not make 
one an able speaker. Erroneous ideas to this effect are apt to 
spring from the memory of certain magazine advertisements illus- 
trating a familiar figure of an eager faced man with hand and 
finger uplifted pointing to the advertiser's headline; Influence 
Men, Become a Public Speaker. The implication of the two ideas 
may or may not bear a connection ; but more than that, the mere 
desire to become a public speaker does not lift one to that ability. 
Such is gained slowly and over no royal pathway. There are re- 
quired persistent training and patience based upon sound advice. 
Plan of the Book. Note that each principle possesses a number. 
The purpose of this arrangement is to set off each principle def- 
initely from the text matter; and, to enable the instructor to 
make specific criticisms of the student by referring him to the 
discussion in the text by that number, thus saving time in the 
recitation. The principles are in many instances axiomatic. No 
one will challenge the importance and value of such ; yet, effective 
speaking must take them into consideration and, too often, it is 
the simpler and more evident principles that speakers overlook. 
Furthermore, no attempt has been made to prevent overlapping 
of principles. Such could not be accomplished, if the writer had 
so desired, Speech is an act unified in nature. Where a factor 
of speaking could be more clearly stated by emphasizing two or 
more aspects of it, the author has not hesitated to increase the 
number of principles, regardless of the overlapping of meaning. 

1. UNDERSTAND THE RELATION BETWEEN THE SCIENCE AND 
ART OF SPEAKING. 

There is a science of speaking based upon the psychology of 
expression, upon the physiological function of the organs of voice, 
and upon the laws of physics which control the pitch, intensity and 
timbre of the voice. 

There is an art in the use of the forms of expression. Art is 
the outgrowth of training. The science of speech deals with the 
knowledge of how one speaks! the art, with the act of speaking. 
The scientist must know, the artist must do. All true art must 
be based upon scientific principles. 

The student will find in these pages only a simple and non- 
technical discussion of the principles of speaking. But he will 
find it highly profitable as well as interesting to supplement his 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 3 

study, at a convenient time, by the works of authors dealing with 
these principles from the viewpoint of the psychologist, the anato- 
mist, and the physicist. 

Definitions of "Speaker" and "Auditor". Throughout these 
chapters the terms "speaker" and "auditor" will be used. 
"Speaker" refers to the person that is talking whether in voca- 
tional or avocational speech; it should not be confused with the 
idea of a "public speaker". The speaker may be a salesman 
talking to a customer, an executive outlining his plans to his board 
of directors or to a friend, an employment manager in conference 
with a group of dissatisfied workmen, a foreman, a clerk, a teacher, 
an actor, a public reader, or a public speaker. The term is all 
inclusive, and in so far as possible all statements of principles 
refer, in general, to occasions of speech that any one of the above 
and many others might meet. 

Similarly, an ' ' auditor ' ' might be any one of the above mentioned 
individuals, or any other type of listener. A group of auditors 
make up an audience. 

2. CONSIDER THE PRINCIPLES OF ATTENTION AND INTEREST. 

For the most part, attention and interest may be considered as 
one and the same. However, one may think of attention as being a 
more variable element than interest. Attention may fluctuate while 
interest is more sustained, less fluctuant. A suggestive illustration, 
not wholly inadequate, might be a body of water : attention resem- 
bles the waves or surface disturbances, while interest is the more 
stable undercurrent. Interest follows attention at all times. What- 
ever attracts the attention soon secures the interest. If you are an 
employee talking to your employer in his office, the passing of 
street cars and vehicles by the window may attract his attention 
from what you are saying, momentarily, but not his interest. An 
accident in the street would attract his attention and his interest 
as well. 

The interestingness of a speaker does not refer to the entertaining 
quality of his ideas because of their humorous content ; but to the 
worth-while-ness of his ideas from the auditor's standpoint. Hu- 
morous narration is but one factor in interestingness. A very seri- 
ous discussion, or a closely reasoned statement of facts may be 
interesting, but not entertaining. Interestingness is an all-inclu- 
sive requisite to speaking. 



4 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Chapters I and II should be thought of by the student as forming 
a unit. They are separated only for the convenience of emphasis. 
The two chapters are the hub of the wheel from which radiate all 
the factors of interesting and effective speaking. 

Attention is the all-important consideration for the speaker. 
If you are to try to convey your ideas to an individual he must 
listen to you : he must give you his attention. All kinds of speak- 
ing must command the attention of those addressed, to be effective. 
The person addressed, the auditor, must find something interesting 
(a) in what the speaker says preferably, or (b) in the qualities of 
voice the speaker uses, or (c) in the action — the gesture used by 
the speaker ; or in all three. 

It is generally taken for granted that a speaker is interested in 
his presentation ; his problem then is to interest you. It is difficult 
to apply the mind to thoughts or consideration of objects in which 
you as an auditor are not in the least interested. If an object 
catches the eye, the attention centers upon the object for a moment. 
If you are interested in the object, the attention continues, if not, 
the attention immediately flits to something else in which you find 
interest. It is practically impossible to fix the mind's eye upon 
that in which you find no inherent interest. Suppose for instance, 
that the instructor should call upon you for a discussion of the 
subject, "Do the angels speak Hebrew, English, French or Ger- 
man?" What would you say? Would you be able to talk before 
the class upon that subject? If not, why? What are the impedi- 
ments you would meet in trying to organize your ideas on this 
topic? The answer may be ventured that in the first place you 
have absolutely no reliable knowledge upon that subject. Again, 
you probably possess no interest in the matter, one way or another. 
What difference does it make to you or to any one else whether 
the angels speak Hebrew, English, or French? You have given 
no thought to the subject. It is without your sphere of interest; 
you have never given it your attention. If you are not interested 
in it, how can you expect to arouse an interest in the mind of 
any one else? Too, those to whom you would speak are similarly 
disinterested as you, in all likelihood. Thej^ like yourself have 
given the subject no consideration. The subject, however, is rather 
novel and unusual. You might be able to secure an auditor's at- 
tention for the brief moment in which he first gives it consideration. 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 5 

This attention could be held only as long as you were able to in- 
terest him with ideas on the subject. 

Take another instance: suppose the instructor should call upon 
you to give some opinions to the class on the subject, ''Should all 
students be required to take two hours of physical exercise daily, 
under the direction of a competent instructor?" Let the my iter 
be considered seriously, such as might be the case were you address- 
ing a students' mass meeting on the subject. The topic at once 
arouses an interest in yourself, and you may feel certain that sim- 
ilar interest will exist in your auditors if the matter is up for 
adoption and the vote of the mass meeting is final. It is a debat- 
able question. You find yourself at once organizing your ideas 
on the proposition either for or against its adoption. Because of 
the inherent influence on the interest of all, both speaker and 
audience, the speaker or the audience experience little difficulty in 
centering attention on the discussion. The subject is vital. 

Thus we see that the outstanding characteristic of all speech, 
whether conversation or public address, must be that of interest- 
ingness; attention is held as long as interest exists. As soon as 
interest wanes, attention goes to something else. 

3. ENABLE THE AUDITOR TO GIVE ATTENTION INVOLUNTARILY. 

There is a relationship between the ability to understand, to 
interpret and appreciate the thoughts of the speaker and the ease 
which we experience in listening to him. 

Voluntary attention on the part of the auditor is of least value 
to the speaker. When it is necessary for you to force attention to 
a speaker, you find it difficult to get the connection between his 
ideas, to assimilate and interpret them. In so far as possible, the 
speaker should help the auditor to give attention by eliminating 
from his method of delivery all mannerisms, such as odd facial 
expressions, peculiar enunciations, or gestures over-done or out of 
keeping with the thought. It is for this reason that advice is 
often given beginners to "be natural." While there are possible 
as many definitions of the term naturalness as there are individuals 
to define it, the essence of the term refers to a type of speech free 
from those forms of delivery that attract attention away from the 
thought of the speaker. We may say that speaker is most natural 
who makes it easiest for us to listen to him, avoiding all modes of 



6 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

expression that in themselves attract attention. Natural speech 
is that type which draws least attention to its method, and allows 
the auditor the greatest grasp upon the meaning intended by the 
speaker. 

If a speaker feels that it will be difficult for him to command 
attention at once, he should as soon as possible accustom his audi- 
tors to his modes of expression by the use of narrative thought, 
a story that he feels sure will at once interest the majority of his 
hearers, so as to enable them to become absorbed in the incident 
and quickly grow accustomed to any modes of delivery that handi- 
cap attention. Generally considered, the narrative is the easiest 
kind of thought composition to attend to. All of us are familiar 
with the experience of listening to a speaker who possesses an im- 
pediment in his speech. At first, it is difficult to follow him, grad- 
ually we become used to the enunciations and, as they grow less 
and less noticeable, we are able to devote more and more attention 
to the ideas; our voluntary attention then passes over to involun- 
tary attention. 

To secure continued involuntary attention, the speaker must 
vivify his thoughts by language that carries his meanings with 
the fewest possible words, by expressive intonations of the voice, 
by gesture, and by modes of expression which his experience has 
taught him convey his ideas most readily. Brilliant lights in the 
darkness of night, loud sounds suddenly thrust upon us, extreme 
changes in temperature and objects moving in the field of vision, — 
all command our involuntary attention because they stir us from 
the thoughts that are occupying our minds at the moment. Sim- 
ilarly, the speaker must command attention by variation in his 
thoughts and forms of expression. Otherwise, they become monot- 
onous to the auditor and attention wanes. 

4. MAKE ALLOWANCE FOR ATTENTION FLUCTUATION. 

Let the instructor place the stop watch upon the table and request 
all members of the class who can faintly hear the ticking of the 
watch to raise the right hand. Then ask them to give attention to 
the sound to ascertain how the ticking comes and goes in "spurts" 
or fluctuations. Now, the ticking can be heard; now the sound 
disappears; now the sound comes to the ear; now, it flows out of 
consciousness. These fluctuations or waves of attention appear 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 7 

but a few seconds apart. Similarly, does the attention of the 
auditor fluctuate in listening to a speaker. The obligation rests 
upon the speaker to enable the auditor to listen to him by being 
logical in his thought, so that if the auditor does not get an idea 
the speaker has given at the moment of attention efflux, the auditor 
may be able to guess from the context what the idea of the speaker 
was at the influx of attention. There must be a connection, direct 
and continuous, between the thoughts of the speaker. He must 
arrange his ideas in points or paragraphs with a unity and con- 
tinuity to the whole. The spoken word differs from that of the 
printed page. If a reader experiences an efflux of attention on a 
sentence, it is possible for him to go back and reread the part missed. 
But usually, he cannot ask the speaker to repeat. 

The fluctuation of attention has its counterpart in rhythmical 
expression. The stress of the voice rises and falls according to the 
emphasis desired to communicate meaning. It is easy to ascertain 
when the speaker wishes to make an idea clear; the intonations of 
the voice enable us to differentiate degrees of importance among 
the ideas spoken. Similarly gestures on the emphatic ideas involve 
a rhythm enabling us to anticipate and realize the important 
thoughts. All experienced speakers follow a rhythm of some kind, 
whether it be upon the basis of thought arrangement or cadences 
of the voice and movements of the body supplementing the thought. 
There is a subtle power about the injecting into a discussion of a 
bit of poetry. The accentuated smoothness of rhythm immediately 
attracts attention. 

THOUGHT 

The Speaker's Thought, Voice, and Gesture Affect the Auditor's 
Attention. An auditor receives his impressions of what the speaker 
wishes to communicate to him not only by the words uttered, but 
by the type of voice and gesture used by the speaker. The only 
reason for speech, of course, is to convey ideas. Therefore the 
media of expression, the voice and the action of the body are of 
prime importance. Interesting speech demands a coordination of 
thought with voice and action. 

These three factors of thought, voice and action will be considered 
separately in their relation to attention and interest. 



8 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

5. FIND INTEREST IN WHAT YOU SAY. 

It is a matter of common knowledge that one can accomplish, a 
task more readily where interested, than where not. The writer re- 
calls that one of his teachers in college often repeated that when a 
task confronted him toward which he held an uncertain interest, he 
would not attempt it until he had thought about it and found 
elements in it of more than usual interest. These finally aroused a 
mild and sometimes a strong enthusiasm for its accomplishment. 
You cannot hope to interest others in what fails to interest you. 
Many speakers more or less unfamiliar with the principles of 
speaking, as such, are effective; they can trace their effectiveness 
to the fact that they are tremendously in earnest over what they 
have to say, their enthusiasm begets in others like enthusiasm ; they 
succeed as speakers. 

It is a safe rule to adopt, not to discuss subjects in which you 
find no interest, if you wish to hold the attention of other persons 
and be effective. Perfunctory conversation, salesmanship, or pub- 
lic speaking is tedious to both parties involved, speaker and listener. 

How to Find an Interest. Think the subject at hand over and 
over, until you find features that appeal to you. Then, find those 
elements which you think will appeal to your auditor. From the 
group of ideas thus organized, select those that are most fitting to 
the occasion and subject. Relate the facts of the subject to your 
own experiences and to what you think to be those of the hearer. 

6. YOUR THOUGHT MUST APPEAL TO YOUR AUDITOR AS WELL 
AS TO YOURSELF. 

The speaker must at all times keep in mind his listener while 
organizing ideas. Think to an imaginary hearer. Violation of 
this principle accounts for much of the uninterestingness of the 
talks of men and women of great influence with whom we come in 
contact. They are much interested in what they say, themselves, 
but leave us out of the consideration. They bore us with their 
own personal views and experiences with which we are often already 
familiar. Or they talk in the technical language of their own field 
of information when a moment's reflection on their part might 
bring out the fact that we would not follow them. If your ideas 
are worth taking up the time of others, they are worth the time 
you can spend upon phrasing them so that they will be understood 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 9 

by the person or persons, addressed. It is not an uncommon ex- 
perience to attend a public lecture and hear a speaker give a paper 
that does not arouse the slightest interest on the part of his 
audience. 

Elements that Appeal. We are always glad to listen to a speaker 
who has something to say worth our hearing. His special infor- 
mation may be new to us, or his ideas may be familiar to us, but 
stated in such a manner as to give us a new viewpoint. Some of 
these elements are, — 

The New. The very make-up of the human mind calls for infor- 
mation. We are constantly seeking for new facts and relationships 
between facts. If you are an unsuccessful salesman, you will find 
special interest in listening to a successful salesman speak of how 
he succeeds. 

The Novel. Novelty attracts attention and interest. Novelty is 
not apt to hold the auditor's interest long, but it plays its part in 
getting the attention of the listener. 

The Unusual. The novel and the unusual are much alike. The 
unusual challenges our minds to an attempt to reconcile it with 
our established ways of thinking. An employer talks to us about 
our work and surprises us with his detailed information about our 
personal relations to our work. This impresses us as unusual con- 
sidering the many employees he must keep in mind. When an 
Arctic explorer returns from the North, we find interest in con- 
versation with him; what he has to tell us is in the main unusual 
and interesting. 

The Specific as Opposed to the Abstract. It is always more easy 
to think in terms of specific instances than in general terms. For 
the Secretary of the Treasury to tell us that the Government needs 
so many billions of dollars for war does not appeal to us as the 
specific statement, "A fifty dollar Liberty Bond will support a 
soldier for so many weeks." To ask a person for money to aid 
in Near East Relief because thousands of persons are starving 
does not contain the appeal which is contained in a description of 
the starving condition of one sufferer and then the suggestion that 
this sufferer's condition be multiplied hundreds of times. 

The Appropriate, The Timely, and The Important. A timely 
remark often saves a situation. A well known lecturer was speak- 
ing one evening at a chautauqua. He, as well as the audience, had 



10 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

been much annoyed by a spotted dog that persisted in returning 
to the platform and attracting attention as often as he was expelled 
from the tent. The speaker relieved the situation finally by pausing 
and looking at the spotted creature as he said, "With the language 
of Lady Macbeth I agree, 'Out, out, damned spot'." 

Introductory Remarks. Often there are occasions when a fitting 
introduction to the real purpose of one's talk will be found de- 
sirable. Writers on the Art of Salesmanship stress with great em- 
phasis, introductions. They include not only the ideas which lead 
up to the salesman's presentation, but all that makes for an agree- 
able first impression. Says Professor Brisco, 1 

The first approach of a customer is of great importance to a salesperson. 
. . . . The first impression that a salesperson makes upon a customer is 
usually a lasting one, and pains should be taken to make this as favorable as 
possible. A languid face .... has driven many customers to other 
salespersons. The whole appearance from the hair to the shoes counts. . . . 
The first few words, with proper facial expression and appearance, are respon- 
sible for many sales. . . . The object of the introduction is to attract 
favorable attention. 

While dress and personal appearance exercise an influence upon 
the auditor, they are negligible at times. Occasions arise when the 
full purport of the speaker's ideas needs explanation; then, a few 
remarks right to the point will accomplish a better understanding. 
Furthermore, the exchange of a few bits of pleasantry, such as 
greetings, or the reference to baseball, golf, or other hobbies mu- 
tual between speaker and auditor will establish cordial relations 
at once. 

The purpose of an introduction, in general, is threefold, — 
First, To win favorable attention to the speaker's subject, 
Second, To secure favorable attention to the speaker, and 
Third, To state the Dominant Thought which the speaker wishes 
to make interesting and effective. Occasionally, it is well not to 
state the Dominant Thought in the Introduction, but to withhold 
it until later in the discussion for the purposes of suspense as an ele- 
ment in holding attention or increasing interest. The speaker must 
apply his good judgment in the matter of the introduction as in all 
matters of speaking. 



Brisco, Fundamentals of Salesmanship, pp. 40, 41. 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 11 

7. ADAPT YOUR THOUGHT TO YOUR AUDITOR. 

It is trite to say that people differ in mental make-up, experience, 
and interests. This, however, is an important consideration for the 
speaker. He cannot, nor need he, take into account the detailed 
differences of individuality; but he should realize the broad differ- 
ences that separate the interests and capability of people. Roughly, 
these may be thought of as dependent upon, — 

Age 

Education 

Vocational occupation 

Social class 

Mental and emotional capacity 

One would not discuss a subject interesting to a child of six 
years of age in the same fashion he would to an adult of sixty years 
of age. "With the child he would be more specific and detailed 
in the discussion. If an executive were discussing with a member 
of his working force the arrangements of his method of routing 
materials through the factory he would not use the same method 
that he would follow in discussing the subject with an outsider 
unacquainted with the general arrangement of the factory. The 
mention of "God Save the King", does not arouse within us the 
same emotion that follows the mention of "The Star Spangled 
Banner". Therefore the speaker must take into consideration the 
mental and emotional background of the auditor. Arguments,, 
facts, illustrations, and incidents, must not only be understood, they 
must be within the power of appreciation of the auditor as well. 
A listener cannot be expected to find interest in that which he does 
not understand or appreciate. 

It should not be forgotten that an effective public speech depends 
upon the character and make-up of the audience. For instance, 
Patrick Henry 's speech which called the Colonies to arms was very 
effective with the audience he addressed, but it would hardly have 
been so effective if it had been delivered in English Court before 
the King. A financier might make a most effective speech to a 
group of bankers on Wall Street, but the same speech would fail 
utterly to interest a group of children in the tenement districts of 
New York City. A college president may deliver an address on 
commencement day before the graduates of a University, which will 



12 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

inspire them to ideals of noblest endeavor, but before a garment 
workers' Union meeting be hooted down. In conversation, a per- 
son may be able to speak most elegantly before the elite of social 
monarchs of New York or Boston, yet he might fail miserably 
were he to attempt to sell a stock of goods to an Ohio merchant or 
a farm implement to an Iowa farmer. 

8. USE WORDS AND PHRASEOLOGY ADAPTED TO THE SUBJECT 
AND OCCASION. 

Certain occasions call for certain phraseology and diction. This 
phraseology and diction merely reflects your mental and emotional 
attitude toward the subject or occasion. For our everyday activ- 
ities, we have a colloquial and conversational phraseology and dic- 
tion. In discussing matters of grave importance and dignity, it is 
fitting that the language should take on properties of gravity and 
of dignity. By this is not meant artificiality. One should take 
care not to become grandiloquent nor pompous. The diction of an 
eulogy differs from that which would be employed in describing to 
a friend a vacation "good time". If the language of the speaker 
is unbecoming to the subject or occasion, the attention and interest 
of the auditor will be antagonized if not lost completely in disgust. 
Good taste is especially necessary in enabling one to suit the word 
to the subject and occasion. 

9. USE TERSE INSTEAD OF INVOLVED SENTENCES, AS A RULE. 

Seldom in oral discussion is the long and involved sentence as 
effective as the shorter one going more directly to the point. More 
than the literary language of the day, spoken language abounds in 
idioms and phrases that border upon slang usage. One should 
employ the idioms as they facilitate the immediate communication 
of meaning. No other phraseology is more clear to an English- 
speaking person than such idioms as, to pluck up courage, to get 
ready, to overlook a fault, to comply with, to look out, to agree with, 
etc. As to the use of slang, a speaker's taste must govern him. 
Slang phrases that are meaningless, and which depend upon an 
inflection of the voice for suggestion of meaning as well as ephem- 
eral slang are not acceptable to those who wish to cultivate "good 
usage ' ' of the mother tongue. 

A good criterion for the selection of sentences is suggested by 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 13 

Hill, 1 "Some writers prefer long to short sentences, others short 
to long ones ; but it is far more important that sentences should be 
skillfully constructed than that they should be of a certain length. 
A sentence that conforms to the English idioms, and that presents 
a single idea with perfect clearness, is practically shorter than one 
that contains fewer words, but that is heterogeneous in substance, 
and obscure or confused in form. That which lacks correctness, 
clearness, and unity is understood, if understood at all, with diffi- 
culty, and it may require a second reading; that which has clear- 
ness and unity is understood at once. A sentence conspicuous for 
force or for ease is practically shorter than one of apparently the 
same length which is feeble or clumsy in expression. Force, by 
stimulating the attention, and ease, by diminishing the strain on 
the attention, enables a reader to get at the meaning without wast- 
ing time on words that signify nothing, or on sounds that jar on 
the ear or offend the taste. If, then, a sentence possesses the five 
merits of correctness, clearness, force, ease, and unity, its length 
if not excessive matters little." 

10. BE CLEAR. 

Much that has been said in the foregoing statement of principles 
may be summed up in the term, "be clear"; that is, the speaker 
should think and express himself clearly. An auditor will find 
the greatest interest in the thought of a speaker where the min- 
imum of attention is necessary. 

You must speak in terms that will be understood by your auditor. 
No two minds think exactly alike or possess information that is 
identical. It would be an interesting revelation if you could look 
into the mind of another individual and observe the great difference 
between the conceptions of his mind and yours. The idea of 
"aeroplane" will suggest to one mind only the machine as it may 
be in the air or upon the ground. To another mind it may suggest 
the experience of flying; to still another mind, it may suggest the 
awful experience of an accident. To one mind the term "atom" 
may suggest few or no ideas. To another mind which has engaged 
in special research in this field, the term may suggest an infinite 
number of thoughts. But minds are able to come together on a 
basis of an understanding, in so far as there exist similar con- 
ceptions in each. 



i Hill, A. S., Foundations of Bhetoric, p. 285. 



14 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

''Instantaneous Intelligibility," — clearness — is an essential in ef- 
fective speech. If in listening to a speaker, you find yourself 
unable to locate any clue or make any connection whatsoever with 
the object he is describing, or if he uses unnecessary and non-essen- 
tial ideas, your attention soon wanes and you lose interest in the 
exercise. It is plain then, if the speaker is to hold the attention, 
and therefore the interest of his auditors, he must be clear and in 
the shortest possible time he must convey to them his meaning. 
He must arouse thoughts and feelings in their minds similar to 
those he possesses, vividly and quickly. 

Clearness depends upon, — 

Diction 

Selection of ideas 
Arrangement of ideas, and 
Mode of speaking. 

Diction. A discussion of the selection and arrangement of ideas 
will be deferred until Chapter II. Diction is one of the most im- 
portant considerations for the speaker. In the last analysis, that 
which conveys his idea to the auditor is the word. No speaker can 
feel himself safe without the possession of a reasonably large vocab- 
ulary, the words of which are "on the tip of the tongue". When 
one is writing a letter it is often possible to stop for a few moments, 
refer to the dictionary and justify the selection of a word. Not so, 
in speaking, one must make his decision immediately. Professor 
Linn 1 characterizes a good vocabulary as follows, ' ' A word is some- 
thing more than a mere combination of letters. It is a definite 
symbol of an idea. A man's words are so intimately connected 
with his thought that almost always a small vocabulary means an 
immature or feeble thinker ; and although a fluent speaker or writer 
has not necessarily anything to say worth listening to, it is true 
nevertheless that to widen one 's vocabulary is to increase the range 
of one's ideas." 

One may say that there are three characteristics to be applied to 
words, exactness, propriety, and vividness. When in doubt regard- 
ing the use of a word you may question, — 

First, Is it exact? 

Second, Is it fitting? 

Third, Does it suggest my thought vividly ? 



1 Linn, J. W., The Essentials of English Composition, p. 93. 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 15 

Exactness refers to the accuracy with which the word is used. 
Does it give my precise meaning? Propriety refers to fittingness. 
Says Professor Linn, 1 "There is good form in words just as in 
manners. A man who eats with his knife or wears tan shoes with 
evening clothes attracts unfavorable notice. Accuracy and sug- 
gestiveness are more important than propriety, just as generosity 
and courage and enthusiasm are more important than good form. 
But there are few things more noticeable than bad form. So to 
educated people there are few things more noticeable and more an- 
noying than a lack of propriety in diction. Who sets good form? 
One's community, one's locality, one's nation, the whole educated 
English-speaking world, and so with words and one must know 
whether the words he uses are or are not acceptable in the polite 
society of letters. ... A word may be well known, and yet not 
acceptable; such a word as ain't. Enthuse is another of the same 
breed ; so is complected. It may be too old, like avaunt, or too new, 
like foozle, or too foreign . . . or too provincial. . . ." Also 
a using of words of "undue splendor of diction" should be avoided. 
Triteness of phraseology is not apt to stimulate much, if any, inter- 
est in the mind of the auditor. Newness and freshness of word 
arrangement is an essential. The author happened to be in the busi- 
ness office of a concern which purchased large orders of merchan- 
dise while a salesman was presenting a selling talk on some article 
to the manager. For several minutes, the manager listened pa- 
tiently, then he interrupted the salesman with, "Say, your goods 
have been improved in the last three years tremendously, but your 
selling talk has not. Keep abreast of your goods ; that is all I can 
do for you today." Vividness is important in the selection of 
words. A vivid word stimulates the imagination. It often em- 
ploys a figure of speech. When George Ade in one of his fables 
mentions a shop girl, he gives us a vivid meaning by saying, "And 
every Saturday night her employer crowded three dollars upon 
her". If you are to develop a good vocabulary, therefore, it is 
essential that you regard not only the words you hear, but the 
words you use, applying the test of accuracy, propriety, and vivid- 
ness. Remember, 2 ' ' In the ordinary affairs of life, the fewer words 
you use to make yourself clear, the better chance you have of being 



i Linn, J. W., The Essentials of English Composition, p. 86. 
2 Hid., p. 89. 



16 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

listened to. Widen your vocabulary, therefore, not that you may 
use many or large words, but that you may use few, and those few 
exact for the occasion." 

11. BE LOGICAL. 

Ideas that enable the auditor to listen most easily to you must 
follow in a sequence; there must be a logical relationship between 
them. If he loses the drift of your thought for a moment, he can 
bring his attention back by the aid of the connection between your 
ideas. Random thinkers are most difficult to listen to. Refer to 
the selection in the back part of the text, by Artemus Ward, ''A 
Lecture" (page 136). Read it aloud. Note how difficult it is to 
give adequate expression to the thought because of the lack of any 
relationship between the ideas. 

12. USE CORRECT GRAMMAR. 

It is without the province of this chapter to discuss the principles 
of rhetoric. You should be familiar with them and adapt your 
language accordingly. 

Correct grammar, thoughtful phrases, vivid diction and climax 
are all conducive to a pleasurable hearing and the absence of them 
is apt to be conducive to an unfavorable hearing. One should 
never try to butcher his grammar to win favor with an uneducated 
audience. A story is told of a lawyer who tried to "come 
down to his jury" by using "was" for "were", "them" for 
"those", and other flagrant violations of grammatical rules. But 
the jury soon perceived his policy and returned a verdict against 
him because as they said, among other considerations, ' ' He thought 
we didn't know nothing." They had been accustomed to hearing 
him use proper language and the cloak did not fit him. 

13. BE SOCIABLE. 

Speech is a social function ; it demands a social attitude of mind 
toward him addressed. A conversational attitude is at all times 
the basis of interesting as well as of effective speaking. You should 
remember that the auditor is a human being, an intelligent person 
like yourself; he is either accepting or rejecting your ideas. He 
either understands or fails to understand them. He does not need 
to be yelled at, nor will he be interested in listening to you give 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 17 

a memorized talk as a little child would speak a "piece". A 
further discussion of this point will follow in Chapter IV, under 
the principle, "Speak Conversationally". 

VOICE 1 

Voice May Command Attention and Interest. The human 
voice is a wonderful instrument. No instrument has ever been in- 
vented capable of equaling it in communicating the subtle thoughts 
and emotions of the mind. It is a common experience to associate 
certain qualities of the voice with the meaning of command. No 
one would think of urging a football team with a quality of voice 
that did not carry the meaning of "fight! fight! fight!" such as 
is used in some of our college yells. One would not call at the 
loudest pitch of his voice to a company of soldiers to "halt!" 
without using a tone of voice indicative of command. But this is 
not what is referred to, not the quality of voice for commands, but 
rather the fact that all the qualities of the voice in all the pitches, 
intensities, etc., possess powers of commanding attention and 
interest. 

The human voice is a sound ; it should be thought of in terms of 
sound. All sounds possess certain influence upon the mind. Let 
us experiment first with sounds in order that we may establish 
the relationship between them and our attention. Sudden loud 
sounds command attention. The shrill whistle of the engini of the 
truck as it pushes along through the crowded street attracts our 
attention, especially if we are in its path. The whistle of the steam 
locomotive is loud that it may attract attention. The gong on the 
fire engine must be loud in order that it may be heard above the 
tumult of the street. It is a common experience in the class room 
for students to glance through the window whenever a wagon or 
an automobile is heard to pass by on the street, not because they 
are interested particularly in the conveyance, simply because the 
sound attracts the mind and attention is directed that way. This 
principle can be readily verified if the instructor will sound a small 



i To the instructor : Chapter VI may be taken up in connection with this 
discussion of the relation of voice to attention and interest. Preferably, how- 
ever, it is suggested that the instructor mention merely the main factors of 
voice production, as an introduction to the subject, reserving the more detailed 
study until later. 



18 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

gong at an unexpected moment. Immediately upon hearing the 
sound, all eyes will be turned in that direction. 

(a) Sounds varying in faintness attract attention. 1 . Let the in- 
structor strike a series of tuning forks some more strongly than 
others, but let all sounds be relatively faint, barely audible. The 
members of the class should listen for every sound even the very 
faintest ; this will call forth unusual attention and each member of 
the class will strain to hear the slightest vibrations of all the tuning 
forks. 

(b) Melody attracts more pleasurable attention than noise. 
Place a musical record upon a phonograph in such a manner that 
it will be necessary for the needle to pass over the area of the 
record before music is produced; let the student compare the at- 
tention with which he listens to the rasping noise as the needle 
scrapes in the furrows of the record in which there is no impression 
of sound, and the attention he gives to the melody as soon as it 
appears. 

(c) Variety of tone facilitates attention. Let the instructor 
strike a series of tones upon the orchestra bells using only sufficient 
intensity to make the sound readily audible in the room. Even 
though the varying tones are continued for as much as five minutes 
the student will find it relatively easy to give attention to the sound. 
Compare this exercise with the experiment which follows. 

(d) A continuous monotone antagonizes attention. Let the in- 
structor continue to strike with about the same intensity as that 
used in the foregoing experiment with the orchestra bells, striking 
the same note; let him continue this for several minutes, or until 
the principle becomes clear. 

(e) A continuous monotone releases attention. Let the in- 
structor strike the same note on the orchestra bells continuously and 
regularly for a period of four or five minutes. Let each member of 
the class lift his right hand as soon as he finds his mind wander 
from the tone to something else signifying that attention has waned. 
What difference is there between the attention you are able to give 
the varying tones and that given the continuous monotone? 

Similarly the voice possesses power to attract or release the at- 
tention. Let the instructor read a selection or speak a discussion 

i The several experiments should be carried on in class, adapted or amplified 
by the instructor. 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 19 

to the class in a monotone pitch of voice somewhat expressionless 
and let each member of the class note how as the tone continues 
there is a tendency to give attention with difficulty. Let the in- 
structor repeat the above, but this time with a guttural quality of 
tone as free from melody as possible. The student will again note 
the antagonism such a tone creates for his attention ; then let the in- 
structor give a discussion to the class or a reading in his best speak- 
ing voice using normal intensity and variety of pitch and tone 
and the student will note the ease with which he attends to this kind 
of sound as compared to the other two. 

Breathing and Resonance. These elements of voice production 
will be discussed at more length in Chapter VI. It suffices to state 
here that without proper breath control, one cannot expect to pro- 
duce satisfactory tones. All of the varying shades of force or 
intensity of voice are produced by regulating the amount of breath 
allowed to pass between the vocal cords. The quality of voice de- 
pends upon the size and shape of the resonance chambers of the 
head. These are the nasal and mouth cavities. The sounds of the 
vowels differ because the mouth cavity is shaped differently for 
each; that is, because the vibration of the vocal cords is resonated 
differently for each vowel. 

In the light of the foregoing discussion, the following principles 
seem to be fundamental, variety of pitch and of force, an agreeable 
voice quality, and proper articulation, enunciation and pronuncia- 
tion. To be more specific, let us apply the above discussion of the 
influence of sound upon interest, to the voice. 

14. VARY THE PITCH. 

Varying the pitch of the voice facilitates greater attention and 
interest, because a wider range of demand upon the hearing of the 
auditor is allowed. If one speak with a monotone, just a few of 
the very sensitive nerve endings within the ear are stimulated ; and 
this stimulus repeated and repeated soon becomes annoying to the 
listener. Also the monotone quality of voice is apt to be accom- 
panied with lifeless expression. A voice is characterized as a mono- 
tone which possesses a small range of pitch on the music scale. 
There is no absolute monotone. On the other hand, a speaker 
should avoid undue variety of pitch. Either extreme in pitch, 
monotone or undue variety, is objectionable. Undue variety smacks 



20 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

of freakishness and has no place in speech, except in certain forms 
of speech for entertainment, imitation and caricature. Training 
and taste will, when supervised by a competent teacher, establish 
a reliable standard, otherwise, more harm may be experienced than 
good. Furthermore, variety of pitch may be suited to the forms 
of emphasis to stress the relationships between words spoken. 
Emphasis will be discussed in Chapter IV. 

15. VARY THE FORCE. 

Just as variety in pitch enables the auditor to listen to the 
speaker more easily, so variety of force of voice contributes to in- 
terest. The chief contribution of variety in force is the element 
of vitality in expression. Energetic expression stimulates vigor of 
response in the mind of the auditor, calling attention to the speak- 
er's more emphatic ideas. Probably the most outstanding crit- 
icism passed upon student-speakers in the class-room is the lack of 
vitality with which they speak. 

Probably more speakers, of those who succeed, win success be- 
cause they vitalize their thoughts and make themselves interesting 
than because of any other one point of excellence. And also of 
those who fail, it is probable that more fail because they do not 
vitalize their thoughts and make themselves interesting than be- 
cause of any other one deficiency. Life begets life, vitality im- 
parts vitality. A stirring speaker moves his audience. A "live" 
salesman makes sales because enthusiasm is catching. A lifeless 
speaker never moved an auditor to action. Edmund Burke with 
all his remarkable mental endowment was known among his col- 
leagues in Parliament as the dinner bell for when he began his 
11 refining " they thought of "dining". Too much emphasis can- 
not be placed upon this point. Of course, the vitality a speaker 
feels must be kept under control or mere ranting, sound and fury 
will result. 

As stated with reference to pitch, both sameness of force and 
undue extremes of force are to be avoided. All practice on the 
part of the student should be supervised by a competent instructor. 

16. DEVELOP AN AGREEABLE VOICE QUALITY. 

It is a very difficult task to define "agreeable voice quality". 
In a detailed analysis there would be a great variety of opinion, 
but in general it is not difficult to characterize voices as agreeable 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 21 

or disagreeable in the extreme. The discussion of this principle 
therefore is more negative than positive ; the author wishes to sug- 
gest that effort should be made to eliminate outstanding disagree- 
able qualities of voice. An over-nice voice is of course equally ob- 
jectionable, in so far as it attracts attention to its quality rather 
than to the idea of the speaker. A satisfactory type of speaking 
voice may be loosely defined as one which enables the auditor to con- 
centrate maximum interest upon the thought of the speaker. 

Disagreeable qualities of voice may spring from four sources. 
These are, — 

a. Improper vibration of the vocal cords, resulting in ' ' harshness". 

b. Undue resonance through the nasal chamber, resulting in " na- 
sality " 

c. Accentuated resonance in the front part of the mouth, resulting 
in ' ' flatness ' ' of tone, or an extremely penetrating and piercing 
quality. 

d. Accentuated resonance in the back part of the mouth, or throat, 
causing what is sometimes termed "throatiness", or "sup- 
pressed voice". 

The voice may possess such unpleasant qualities that it is next 
to impossible for an auditor to be favorably impressed with a 
speaker's words. These qualities may be the result of organic 
troubles, crudities of utterance, or of affectations. Of the three 
the latter is apt to receive least sympathy. An untutored manner 
although somewhat crude is more tolerable than the crudity of 
affected voice qualities. 

17. ARTICULATE AND ENUNCIATE EACH SOUND PROPERLY. 

Articulation refers to the utterance of consonants; enunciation, 
to the vowels. Indistinctness of either causes strain upon the 
attention of the auditor, burdening him unnecessarily. If a 
speaker is logical in his thought, it is no particular handicap if the 
auditor misses a word now and then, provided the word is not 
crucial. He may follow the speaker's ideas with little difficulty. 
But otherwise, it is most annoying to try to follow an indistinct 
speaker. 

18. PRONOUNCE WORDS ACCEPTABLY. 

Gross mispronunciations call attention to the fact and check 
the listener's attention, to a degree depending upon the frequency 



22 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

of mispronunciation. In the pronunciation of English, follow a 
standard generally accepted as correct. 

ACTION 

The very positions and movements of the body convey meanings 
and emotions . Lying flat on the back on a summer lawn suggests 
the emotion of relaxation more than does the position of crouching 
as if to leap. The face has rather definite expressions for such 
emotions as laughter, intense grief, surprise, anger, etc. The next 
time you see a motion-picture, close your eyes when the words de- 
scriptive of the story flash upon the screen and attempt to divine 
the emotions of the characters and the thought of the picture. Note 
what bodily positions and facial expressions are particularly poten- 
tial in giving you meaning and in stimulating within you strong 
emotions. Although the principles of action pertain more to dra- 
matic art than to every-day speaking, any survey of the principles 
of speech calls for a few notations on the part played by the move- 
ments of the body in communicating ideas. 

19. ACTION STIMULATES ATTENTION AND INTEREST. 

Even in ordinary conversation, most persons supplement their 
speech by gesture and facial expression. A minimum of practice 
before a large mirror will enable one to notice the difference between 
bodily positions that command attention and respect, and those 
which do not. Oftentimes, one's lack of poise, undignified bodily 
posture, and slouchiness become actions that speak louder than 
words and in a sense not complimentary to the speaker. There- 
fore, we may accept the following principle as fundamental: 

20. DEVELOP POISE, POSTURE, AND GESTURE INTERPRETATIVE 
OF THE THOUGHT YOU WISH TO COMMUNICATE. 

21. BE NATURAL. 

It is quite impossible to phrase a definition of naturalness that 
would be all-inclusive and generally acceptable. The following 
statement, however, is fairly adequate and at the same time syn- 
thetic of all elements of expression: Naturalness is that type of 
expression which attracts least attention to its manner. We speak 
for the purpose of conveying ideas, the idea's the thing. 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 23 

22. STRIVE FOR EASE. 

Ease on the part of the speaker immediately puts the auditor in 
a state of ease. Nervousness on the part of the speaker arouses 
a similar uneasiness within the listener. Naturalness already has 
been defined as methods that draw no attention to themselves pri- 
marily. A natural speaker therefore is an easy speaker. We ex- 
perience no difficulty in listening to him. Of course it is possible 
after an auditor becomes fully acquainted with a speaker's bad 
habits of expression to overlook them charitably and in time to be 
able to glean the thought without much discomfiture. Facial ex- 
pression should be pleasant and agreeable ; it should not antagonize. 
Speech that is abrupt, not smooth, in which the flow of thought is 
so interrupted at times as to break the logical connection, at- 
tracts attention away from the thought and should be avoided. 
The habit of ending phrases with the sound of -a, such as and-a, 
to go-a, etc., is inimical to natural and easy speech. Probably the 
greatest foe, however, is timidity and embarrassment. No panacea 
for self -consciousness can be given. There is but one remedy, and 
that is the development of self-confidence by repeated effort. The 
more one appears before others the less timidity will be experi- 
enced. Even our popular orator, William Jennings Bryan, is said 
to suffer at times from stage fright. In fact it is possible that this 
very tension of mind, this expenditure of nervous energy is neces- 
sary to success in the presentation of ideas. 

Personality May Antagonize Attention. The personality 
represents the whole individual, his voice, his bodily expression, 
and the character and reputation he possesses. If an individual 
has developed a reputation for selling ' ' blue sky ' ' investment stocks, 
we do not care to give him our attention and interest as he elabo- 
rates his schemes for making money quickly. His reputation speaks 
louder than all the intonations of his voice and with greater mean- 
ing than any he can put into words. The student can easily recall 
the influence of the personality of some speakers regardless of their 
abilities. 



24 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

ASSIGNMENTS i 

1. Does every art possess a science? To what extent is a knowledge of the 
science of speech essential to successful speaking? 

2. To what extent is interest a fundamental principle in speaking? 

3. What is meant by giving the auditor involuntary attention? 

For the purpose of illustrating this principle, let the instructor select five 
speakers from the class for two minute talks. Let the only instructions as to 
subject be that each speaker shall discuss a topic interesting to him. Then re- 
quest the speakers to leave the room so none of them will hear the discussion of 
another, before speaking. Let the instructor allow but a few minutes for 
preparation. The time limit of two minutes should be strictly observed. After 
the five have spoken, let the members of the class rank each on the basis of the 
ease with which they were able to listen. Let " " be the grade given him to 
whom it was most difficult to listen, and ' ' 100 ' ' the grade given him to 
whom it was easiest. Kate the other speakers between ' ' " and ' ' 100 ' '. Be- 
fore the members of the class hand in their markings to the instructor, let each 
student go over his rankings and ascertain whether he did not get the best 
understanding, the greatest number of ideas, from the speaker to whom it was 
most easy to listen; and the least number of ideas and the poorest understand- 
ing from the speaker to whom it was most difficult to listen. Does such a 
relationship exist? 

The following exercises in thinking before others should be among the very 
first considered by the class. The speakers should be allowed full opportunity 
to put their thoughts and feelings into speech without suggestions or criticisms 
from the instructor. These should be given later, as the student progresses, but 
in his early work the thought 3 the idea, is the thing and he sJwuld be allowed 
to give expression to his thoughts in the language and in the manner that is 
most habitual. Such an exercise offers a logical, a natural, a normal and a 
sincere starting point for speech education. 

4. Let each member of the class give a short talk on some current event. 
Let him endeavor to speak to the point in this assignment with special regard 
for concise language and accurate statement of fact. Let him select an event 
that is interesting to himself and which he feels sure will be of interest to the 
class, then let him interest the class in his discussion of it. 

5. Let each member of the class present a talk setting forth some personal 
experience that he feels will be of mutual interest. In this assignment, let 
each speaker strive (a) To make his narrative interesting to the class; (b) To 
impart to the class his own appreciation of the significance of the experience. 

6. Let some member of the class speak with special purpose of holding the 
attention of his auditors. Let the speaker select his own topic. After the talk, 



i Assignments follow the chapters. These are varied in nature and may form, 
the basis of classroom work or be assigned as a part of the student 's prepara- 
tion for recitation. They are suggestive of many other exercises that the in- 
structor may organize. The writer believes in ''doing" as a fundamental 
factor in speech training or education. The discussion of the chapters should 
form a basis for practice. 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 25 

let each member of the class, as well as the speaker, come to a definite concep- 
tion as to what extent the speaker succeeded. Let the exercise form the basis 
of a class discussion on, ' ' Holding the attention and interest of the auditor. ' ' 

7. Let the instructor assume a position in which the body is erect, the heels 
of the feet near together and the head well poised, chin up, etc. Then let the 
student observe the contrast between this position and one in which there is a 
general slouch given to the appearance of the body, muscles relaxed, legs un- 
evenly placed, head allowed to droop to one side and the hands rest upon some 
object near by. The general dilapidation of this posture is not conducive to 
attention when compared with the former. It is a negative position. Let sev- 
eral members of the class appear upon the platform using their own ingenuity 
to suggest to the class what they think to be a positive bodily posture, one that 
commands attention in itself in comparison with a negative posture which is 
not conducive to attention. Weak gestures made with the arm, that is, short 
movements, do not command the attention nor suggest the force of thought 
comparable to larger movements with greater range of gesture. 

8. Let a member of the class now make a talk in which he describes but 
does not name some familiar scene, building or personality. Let the members 
of the class endeavor to guess what he describes, as he speaks, holding up their 
right hands as an answer is guessed. When the hands of half the class have 
been raised to suggest to the instructor that answers have been decided upon, 
the instructor should determine whether the guesses are correct. After the cor- 
rect answer has been mentioned, let the speaker analyze in his mind what 
method of organization of ideas he followed in trying to give the auditor clear 
suggestions and at the same time not specifically to name what he was de- 
scribing. Similarly, let the members of the class analyze in their minds what 
was said by the speaker that enabled them to guess the scene, object, or per- 
sonality described. This experiment presents a splendid example of how minds 
come to a mutual understanding. When the speaker began, you had no con- 
ception of what he was to describe. As he progressed, you began to match 
your own ideas with his; or, his ideas suggested certain thoughts to your mind; 
you compared until you found an idea in both your minds common to the object 
you thought he was describing. You followed the clue further until you felt 
sure you knew what the object was. Suppose, for instance, it was a building; 
when he mentioned the color of the building, its arrangement on the campus, 
architecture and daily use, then you concluded you recognized the object he was 
describing. 

9. A variation of the foregoing experiment should now be considered. The 
purpose of this variation is to discover how quickly the speaker can make clear 
his idea to an auditor. In the foregoing, familiarity of object to the auditor 
was essential to the experiment. In this variation, objects should be chosen that 
are not unknown to the members of the class; but, they should be rated as 

a. Unfamiliar 

b. Familiar 

c. Very familiar 

A stop-watch should be used by the instructor or the student to check up on 



26 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

the time required by each speaker to convey his idea to at least half the number 
of the class. Suppose, for instance, the speaker has in mind an aeroplane. He 
begins his description with the words, ' ' The object I have in mind flies in the 
air." It is quite evident now that no one is sure this is an aeroplane, as birds, 
fishes, etc., fly in the air. The speaker must give a more definite clue. The 
speaker continues, ' ' This object possesses wings; it rises to quite a height above 
the earth and flies very fast. ' ' Still, we are unable to guess what the speaker 
is trying to describe. We do not feel certain what he means by ''quite a 
height, ' ' nor ' ' very fast. ' ' These are relative terms. But suppose finally, he 
gives us this thought with the words, "The object has a motor and is directed 
in the air by a human being." Immediately, we are confident of the object; 
no bird or animal possesses a motor. It is apparent now that the speaker might 
have communicated his idea to us much more quickly by leaving out the quali- 
fications that applied to the other objects and have said, ' ' The object I have in 
mind flies in the air, propelled by a motor. ' ' One sentence then would have 
given us his meaning. The stop-watch will determine the time required by each 
speaker to convey his ideas to at least half the class. He should be ranked first 
who is able to communicate his idea most quickly in each of the above classifica- 
tions of ideas. The instructor should determine in advance to which of the 
classes the object to be described belongs. 

10. Let the instructor give notice to five speakers that they are to appear 
before the class. Allow each a period of preparation varying from five minutes 
to one, ten minutes to another, fifteen minutes to the third, twenty minutes to 
the fourth and twenty-five minutes to the fifth. Let the instructor confer with 
each student in assigning the subject to be sure one of interest has been as- 
signed on which the student possesses information, and let there be a rigid 
insistence upon a time limit of four minutes of discussion ; the speakers should 
utilize all their time but at the end of the period be ' ' rapped down. ' ' Choose 
speakers of about the same fluency of expression. Is there a relationship 
between the grades of ease with which the members of the class listened and the 
time of preparation allowed the speakers? 

The instructor, or the student from general observation, may make other 
variations of the above experiment to bring out any relationship between facil- 
ity of expression, preparation, and involuntary attention. 

11. What are the essential characteristics of a "right" word? 

12. Note how words suggest an appeal to certain senses. 

Hearing. Bawl, call, roar, scream, etc. 
Touch. Beat, bruise, chasten, hit, pommel, flog, etc. 
Motion. Quake, totter, sway, jar, brandish, tremble, etc. 
Taste. Sour, bitter, pungent, sweet, luscious, spicy, etc. 
Smell. Scent, perfume, fragrance, odor, etc. 
Temperature. Icy, torrid, blistering, wintry, etc. 
Pain. Anguish, twinge, pang, ache, torture, throe, etc. 

13. Note in the following how one may reject until he finds the " right " 
word. 



ATTENTION AND INTEREST 27 

Suppose you wish to describe an opening that has been roughly broken 
through a brick -wall. Note how there is just one word that best depicts the 
visual mental picture you wish to convey. 

1. Opening. Too general may be applied to almost any such picture. 

2. Cavity. Eefers more to an opening externally closed. 

3. Concavity. The idea of surface, predominant. 

4. Hole. Good, but not just the idea; a hole need not necessarily pass 
through the wall. 

5. Burrow or den. Entirely inadequate. 

6. Crack, fissure, or slit. These possess an image that is narrower than the 
opening you wish to define; the raggedness of the edges in your picture, how- 
ever, are present in these words. 

7. Chasm, gorge, or ravine. These are not satisfactory for they arouse 
images of the earth 's surface. 

8. Defile. This image is of an opening; but it relates to mountain passes. 

9. Bent. The image of raggedness, of being torn, is present in this word; 
but its associations are more with cloth than with walls. 

10. Orifice or perforation. Either has to do more with holes or openings 
into cavities. 

11. Bore or tunnel. The image these words stimulate is more round than 



12. Excavation. Thought of more in connection with holes in the earth's 
surface that later are to be filled. 

13. Notch. Possesses the image of one irregularity, but the opening you 
wish to describe has many notches. 

14. Aperture. Good, very near the idea; but the word has a current usage 
in science more than in colloquial speech. 

15. Cleft. Also good, but there is a word slightly more vivid. 

16. Gap. Eefers too much to portions that were never joined. 

17. Breach! This is the word, its image conveys your idea. 

Yet, you might have stopped with any one of the words that were ' ' good ' ', 
and not made your search further. But your continued search brought you the 
word conveying the most vivid mental picture of what you wished to describe. 
If the word breach is a much used word with you and you have heard it used 
before, or had used it before, in that connection, you would have thought of it 
immediately and not have made the wide selection. Familiarity with an exten- 
sive range of image-words of current usage is an essential factor in the ability 
to communicate thoughts and emotions. 

14. What are the shades of difference in the following words: how do they 
differ as to image, feeling, or idea aroused? 

Ability. Skill, cleverness, talent, tact, aptitude, capacity, power, capability, 
efficiency, sufficiency, competence, effectiveness. 

Begin. Start, open, arise, commence, initiate, inaugurate, originate, found, 
establish, etc. 

Caution. Care, wariness, heed, warning, distrust, mistrust, circumspection, 
prudence, solicitude, concern, regard, etc. 



28 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Familiar. Hackneyed, ordinary, usual, common, trite, vulgar, intimate, 
sociable, etc. 

III. Invalid, evil, wrong, amiss, bad, harmful, baneful, baleful, ailing, unwell, 
sickly, sick, pernicious, corrupting, dire, diseased, decrepit, prostrate, conva- 
lescent, etc. 

Yoamg. Childish, raw, green, callow, juvenile, budding, puerile, etc. 

15. Eelate a group of synonymous words to each of the following: Abandon, 
abate, abridge, account, admire, anger, amuse, ask, attention, beat, beautiful, 
behavior, ceremony, challenge, cheer, clean, clear, clever, copy, deceit, deny, 
despair, long, quick, trust, ugly, witty, and yield. 

16. Let the instructor assign for several recitations words for which related 
groups are to be found. 

17. Let each student of the class keep a "word book" for the purpose of 
developing a more careful usage of words. Let him record at least two new 
usages to his vocabulary each week during the remainder of the year. These 
words should not be ' ' big ' ' and uncommon words ; they should be words that 
may be used in everyday speaking. In this manner, the student will get away 
from a narrow range of over-used words and will develop a more discriminating 
usage. 

18. Let the subject of "Stage-fright and Timidity" form the basis of a 
class discussion. To what extent are you embarrassed in speaking before oth- 
ers? What seems to be your chief source of embarrassment? How do you 
think you should proceed to eliminate this? Each member of the class should 
be encouraged to discuss the subject freely, frankly, and honestly. 

19. Let each student give a two minute talk on a subject of mutual interest 
to the class, with a minimum of preparation. 

20. Eepeat Assignment 19, above, with a talk carefully prepared. 

21. Eead for the class, conversationally, a selection assigned by the 
instructor. 



Chapter II 
EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 

Now that we have considered some of the elements which con- 
tribute to interest, let us turn our attention to the second most 
important factor in speaking, effectiveness. It is because speech 
is so commonplace a function, generally, that difficulty exists in 
correcting habits of ineffective communication of ideas, habits that 
have been under development for years and which cannot be cor- 
rected in a day. Then too, a standard of effective speech is not 
well established; no two individuals will agree upon just the same 
elements of address as essential to effectiveness. Speech is an art, 
fundamentally, and there must always remain a certain latitude in 
the use of the forms of expression for there are no two individuals 
with minds exactly alike. There is, also, a wide range of innate 
facility with which persons express their thoughts and emotions. 
Some seem to experience little difficulty in finding adequate forms 
of expression as well as language ; others toil for the power of ready 
expression seemingly in vain. Surely some individuals inherit 
ability along this line and others, probably to the greatest extent, 
are fortunate in the environment of their childhood and youth. 
The home influence, competent instruction of the school-room in 
oral expression, and wide range of interests and of reading, all con- 
tribute toward the development of those mental faculties which 
control effective speech. But although some individuals develop 
very rapidly in ability to express ideas adequately and there are 
others who seem to progress much more slowly, there are no stu- 
dents who cannot improve by giving attention to the factors that 
enter into effective speech and by training those faculties of the 
mind and body that convey meaning from one individual to another. 

The Basts op All Effective Speech is Thought. You will no- 
tice that the statement of the preceding sentence is not that "the 
basis of speech is thought." Two small but important words are 
included, all effective speech. Much that is speech has little basis 
of thought, and sometimes we are tempted to believe has no basis 
of thought. Thoughtless speech is trifling, generally is chatter. 

29 



30 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Just as the basis of all real progress in society, whether in science, 
invention, government, or art, etc., is human thought, so must the 
basis of all expression between minds be thought. In fact, speech 
historically is the outgrowth of the desire of one person to convey 
his ideas to some other person. Speech is just an outward mani- 
festation of inward desire and attitudes. 

If, then, the only excuse for speech, generally considered, is to 
convey meanings, how important becomes the ability to think and 
to think not for one's self alone, but in terms and language under- 
standable by him addressed. It is not to be wondered at that those 
who possess dominant powers of thought, and at the same time 
adequate powers of self-expression, rule ; while those lacking such 
mental mastery serve. 

23. DEVELOP THE ABILITY TO THINK IN THE PRESENCE OF 
OTHERS. 

The chief excuse for the public speech that is read exists in the 
fact that the speaker feels himself unable to phrase his thoughts in 
as definite and as satisfactory language amid all the possible dis- 
turbing conditions of a public assemblage as in the quiet of his 
study. Few if any great addresses or effective public speeches 
have been read to the audience. Likewise, the college student who 
spends his vacation canvassing soon learns that he cannot read his 
selling talk to a busy farmer or business man and effect a sale, nor 
can he declaim his selling talk from memory and be effective, re- 
gardless of the laurels he may have won in the college dramatic club. 
Effective speech is the outgrowth of the development of the ability 
to think before other people and to think sufficiently. For the 
public speaker, the audience will remain generally until he has 
finished his address, either out of regard for what he is saying or 
respect for itself; but, as has been said, a relatively small percent- 
age of students aspire to become good public speakers and a smaller 
percentage ever will become such. In vocational and social con- 
versation, the speaker's line of thought is more apt to be inter- 
rupted by the auditor; the salesman must make explanations, meet 
objections, and present arguments, that could not have been fore- 
seen. The doubts in the mind of the customer must be met and 
satisfied at the moment. By far the greater amount of speaking 
whether in vocational or social conversation demands immediate 
thought before other minds and, much of the present-day public 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 31 

speaking also, especially of the informal type. So that it may be 
considered a fundamental principle in effective speech that one 
must train himself to think in the presence of other minds. 

(a) Timidity and stage-fright. Timidity is a personal charac- 
teristic which generally is the outgrowth of early influence or train- 
ing. From an environment lacking in social life or a home in which 
self-expression is suppressed, timid children are apt to come. 
Again, timidity may be the outgrowth of an undue self-conscious- 
ness on the part of the individual because of self-depreciation, or 
because of, as is often the case — a deep egotism. The timid person 
may lack both the ability to think and speak before others, or he 
may be fully able to think in the presence of other minds and yet 
lack the power to express his ideas adequately. The timid person 
must avail himself of opportunities to associate and converse with 
other people. Milder forms of timidity will soon disappear with 
such activity. The great need for the average timid person is a 
developing sense of independence and right to an opinion together 
with familiarity with the sound of his own voice and use of other 
media of expression. Especially in speech does repeated effort 
bring confidence. Let the timid individual frankly acknowledge 
that he is timid; then, when speaking, let him seek to become so 
engrossed in the thought and social pleasure of the occasion that 
he becomes oblivious of self. 

Stage-fright is a sort of fear that is apt to attack not only those 
who are timid, but those who ordinarily experience little or no 
timidity in speaking before others. The term is used in connection 
with the public appearance of theatrical people and is especially 
common to the actor or actress appearing for the first few times 
before the footlights. But the term also is used to apply to that 
fear which suddenly seizes a speaker as he appears before a group 
of auditors, especially a large audience. It is probably an in- 
herited trait similar to that experienced by some animals when in 
the presence of their captors or of some dreaded foe. There is 
little other meaning which suggests an explanation of stage-fright. 
The speaker who is familiar with appearances before others is not 
immune ; in fact, there are records of experienced speakers failing 
utterly and having to withdraw from the audience simply because 
of this fear. Yet, there is no legitimate cause for such fear. 
"When attacked by this unreasoning fear, the speaker should exert 



32 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

himself to retain his mental poise and be calm. The sensation is 
seldom more than momentary and passes with the speaker's gaining 
full control of his thought and deliberation. 

The most potent weapon against both timidity and stage-fright 
is clear thinking. Just as soon as one allows his ideas to become 
confused, he renders himself susceptible to attack. When possible, 
ideas should be thought out in detail before a talk that is to be 
given; no wise speaker, subject to timidity or stage fright, will 
wait until his time to speak before he attempts to organize his 
thoughts. 

Effective Speech Demands a Sensitive Appreciation of 
Meaning. It is not possible to be effective if the significance of 
what one is uttering is not understood. The little child giving his 
"piece", "Twinkle, twinkle, little star!" etc., has no appreciation 
of the meaning of the words he utters. Both selections that are 
read and memorized talks that are simply repeated often lack effec- 
tiveness because the reader or speaker does not appreciate the 
significance of the meaning of the words he speaks. An apprecia- 
tion of meaning is a factor of prime importance. 

The ability to appreciate meaning depends upon the mental back- 
ground of information and experience possessed by the speaker. 
"Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaketh." Back- 
ground may be thought of as the sum total of information and ex- 
perience possessed upon any given subject. We are always ready to 
listen to a person speak along the lines of our interests, if he knows 
what he is talking about. Even for short class talks, the student 
will find that he is more effective when discussing something fa- 
miliar than when he attempts an entirely new subject. The impor- 
tance of the relation between a talk based upon experience may 
be illustrated by the floating iceberg. That part of the iceberg 
which appears above the surface of the water is relatively small; 
by far the larger part is not visible: the larger portion, however, 
is the support of that which is visible. The wise speaker makes 
no attempt to tell all he knows ; he selects from the bulk of his in- 
formation and experience, the larger the bulk the better, an idea 
here and an idea there, but his thoughts carry weight because of 
the experience upon which they are based. One develops back- 
ground by a. Thoughtful Observation, b. Conversation, c. Read- 
ing, d. Reflection. 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 33 

The chief characteristic of appreciation when applied to meaning 
is the emotional response the meaning awakens within us. We may 
think the fact of Niagara Falls. We may speak of the Falls as a 
certain type of mind often speaks and say, "Pretty." Or, we 
may follow the expression of another type and say, "Impressive". 
Still, we may view the wonder of nature and say with a noted 
scholar, "Deity!" Appreciation is the feeling we possess toward 
ideas. The thought of war means more to the individual who has 
been in the thick of it than to one without the experience and whose 
only background for war is the information found in publications. 
Is it not a legitimate criticism, often, to say of a speaker that he 
does not appreciate what he says ? 

Effective Speaking Demands Vivid Thinking. The ability to 
communicate thoughts and feelings to another mind effectively 
depends upon the speaker's definiteness and vividness of ideas. 
Can you recall a conversation with some individual whose mind 
seemed confused as he spoke. His sentences carried little meaning 
to you; in other words, you did not know what he was talking 
about. On the other hand recall the words of a friend who brought 
some great news to you, news in which you both were interested. 
Remember how each sentence stirred you as he spoke and of how 
each word seemed almost as vivid with a mental picture to you as 
to him ; and of how impressive were not only the features of his face 
and the gestures he used, but the tones and inflections of his voice 
also. 

There is a very close relationship between the images of the mind 
and the words we select in expressing these mental pictures to 
another individual. The question is often discussed as to whether 
we think in terms of wordless images and thoughts. Professor 
Titchner 1 remarks, 

There is a long standing controversy ... on the question whether 
thought is possible without language. And it hinges, like many other contro- 
versies, upon the ambiguity of the question itself. If we take the human adult, 
as he is, and appeal to his introspection, the answer comes plain and definite: 
thought and reasoning, define them as stringently as we may, can go on in 
terms of internal speech, in terms of conscious attitudes, . . . and in 
terms of images. The attitude is as symbolic as the word, and the image may 
be as symbolic as the attitude; all that thought requires is a system of mental 
symbols. But this very statement suggests another reading of the question in 



i Titchner, E. B. A Text-look of Psychology, pp. 522-3. 



34 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

discussion. Thought requires symbols; language is a system of symbols; and 
we have no reason to suppose that in the history of mind, it supervened upon 
or took the place of any previous system. Thought and language, in other 
words, appear to have grown up side by side; each implies the other; and in 
this sense it is true to say that there is no thought without words; reasoning 
and language are two aspects of the same phase of mental development. The 
old conundrum: Why don't animals talk? Because they have nothing to say 
— contains a sound psychology; if the animals thought, they would talk; since 
they do not talk, they do not either think. 

In the foregoing paragraph Professor Titehner was quoted to 
cite the fact that we possess a mental language, an "internal 
speech", which is quite independent, in a way, of the language 
that we speak socially. All of us are familiar with the rush of 
thought in the mind which is wordless; we seek to find just the 
words expressive of the thought. We have a specific mental picture 
we wish to characterize exactly for the mind of another ; it may be 
the image of a sound, a high pitch, but, although we have the 
image of the sound in mind, it may be several moments before we 
are able to call to mind the word, "shrill", with which we wish to 
describe it. It is for this reason that the study of, and discrimina- 
tion among, words is a pleasure. It opens up new satisfactions, 
for we are able to communicate shades of meaning impossible be- 
fore. Words are symbols of meanings common to the people who 
speak our language. It is a joyous exercise to find exact counter- 
parts in the words of language for the mental pictures we ex- 
perience. 

Thought without the use of specific words is possible and normal. 
But much of our thinking is in terms of specific words and in 
terms of the language we speak. Words enable us to define and 
limit, to characterize exactly, our images and ideas. Note how 
they characterize a mental picture. Close your eyes and imagine 
a horse. How is the animal's appearance affected if you are told 
"He is a plug'"! How, if you are told "He is a prancing steed'"! 
Our language is rich in vivid words and phrases expressive of our 
images, thoughts, and emotions; and while these expressive words 
facilitate our thinking to a great degree, they become an absolute 
necessity in social, commercial, or professional relationships when 
we undertake to change the thought or course of action of another 
person. 

Kinds of Mental Images: — Ordinarily we think of our mental 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 35 

images as being pictures "seen in the mind's eye". We call to 
mind the image of how the house in which we live looks, and we 
"see" it. But the visual image is only one of several types of 
images. Imagine, if you can, a street scene in your town on a 
very hot summer day. You see the few people who must walk in 
the sun panting and wiping their faces with their handkerchiefs. 
The people are walking slowly, too ; not hurrying about. But can 
you not experience more than a visual sensation? Cannot you 
also feel the heat of the day? Do you not hear the voice of some 
conversational philosopher, calling attention to wmat you wish to 
think least about, "Pretty warm day, isn't it?" You can probably 
taste the satisfaction a dish of ice cream brings as you feel the 
perspiration on your brow. 

These images are definite and to a degree vivid. They are 
more than visual ; they may correspond to all the senses, and may 
have as sources, sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, temperature, 
pain, muscle sensation, etc. And furthermore, individuals vary 
in their ability to recall the various mental images; some see ob- 
jects more readily than they hear sounds ; others may be relatively 
unable to visualize while images of temperature or of pain will 
come with extreme vividness. Because of the fact of this variation 
among persons it is necessary for the student of oral expression 
to study all forms of mental imagery. He personally may visualize 
with great ease, but if in conversation w r ith an individual who 
possesses poor powers of visualization, he will be unable to commu- 
nicate his own thought if its appeal is chiefly to visual imagery. 
Imagine a salesman trying to sell a deaf man a player-piano with 
any reasonable expectation that the instrument would bring the 
purchaser personal satisfaction. 

Influence of Imagery on Our Thoughts. One kind of imagery 
will appeal to one type of mind; another kind to another type. 
Some people are satisfied if they believe they look to be in style. 
Some cannot bear to listen to a detailed description of misery or 
accidents that have resulted in painful injury. Wordsworth was 
a keen observer of nature and enjoyed its moods; recalling the 
images of a stroll near the lake, he found comfort and solace in 
their vividness. 

' ' For oft when on my couch I lie 
In vacant or in pensive mood 



36 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

They flash upon that inward eye 
Which is the bliss of solitude 
And then my heart with pleasure fills, 
And dances with the daffodils." 

Creative Imagination: "While the term imagination may be used 
in connection with the recall of any sense image, it is more pop- 
ularly used with reference to visual imagery. We speak of a person 
as being imaginative if he sees mental pictures. Yet, we could not 
deny that a blind person possesses imagination, or that Helen 
Keller, who can neither see nor hear, has imagination. It is likely, 
however, that most individuals form some kind of visual image 
when imagining any of the other sensations. If we speak of the 
image of broiling steak, probably the steak is seen and the odor of 
the frying meat accompanies the visual image. 

Imagination may be creative. While it is impossible for a mind 
to imagine anything that has not at some time been perceived 
through the senses, it is possible to make new images that have not 
been seen. The term "heaven" is a good illustration of our at- 
tempt to create an image of a place not seen. We attribute to it 
all the excellencies our natures crave or in which our natures will 
find satisfaction. It is spoken of as being paved with gold, the 
gates are embellished with precious jewels, etc., all forming a visual 
appeal of striking beauty and splendor. The danger to be guarded 
against in imagination is the tendency to get too far away from 
the facts, from the truth. Children's untruths are often normal 
for they see the creations of the imagination vividly and they do 
not distinguish between the real and the unreal. The mind should 
be schooled as Professor Titchner says, "To distinguish between 
fact and fancy . . . must be taught the distinction that what 
begins as a normal feature of mental constitution is not to end as a 
habit of exaggeration and disregard of truth. Rightly schooled, 
imagination is of the greatest service in after life." Some public 
speakers, salesmen, and others as well, exaggerate images with re- 
peated description and sometimes these exaggerations become so 
real to the speaker that they are told for fact. 

Developing Mental Imagery. The faculty of summoning images 
is strong in childhood, but with years it may be weakened by dis- 
use until it almost ceases to function, especially among some of the 
sensations. The student of oral expression should allow full play 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 37 

to his tendency to image ; the only cheek upon it should be the limits 
of fact. Exercises aid in the development of habits of mental 
imagery such as thinking how each article of food will taste as you 
order from a menu card or approach the dinner table; recalling 
the refreshing exhilaration of a brisk walk into the country, re- 
membering the physical pain that accompanies improper habits of 
living ; reading literature with special effort to enter into the appre- 
ciation of the emotions as suggested by the mental imagery of the 
writer ; listening to good speakers, with susceptible attitude toward 
images; and, using mental imagery in your own conversation to 
aid in conveying your thoughts and emotions to other people. 

Images and Ideas. It has already become apparent to the reader 
by this time, no doubt, that there is a relationship between the 
mental picture and other ideas. The image contained in the word, 
barrage, gives an idea and you cannot resist the tendency to 
summon other images immediately around it, especially if you hap- 
pened to be one of those who have seen or been through one. 
You cluster these images and ideas and you have an association 
which leads you to a larger group of ideas; not only the barrage, 
but the men as they stagger in it ; you see the wounded, you won- 
der how they endure the pain; you think some will recover from 
their wounds but be maimed for life ; the time element that must 
be observed in following the barrage comes to you and the mandate 
to follow it at a certain pace; you realize that there is a plan to 
it all, that the commander who has issued the order to follow has 
some objective to gain: all these and many more thoughts come to 
you almost instantaneously w T ith the image summoned by the men- 
tion of the word barrage. Ideas, then, are inseparably connected 
with images and the whole forms the basis for thought. As one 
thinks these groups there is no consciousness of nouns, adjectives, 
verbs, nor sentence arrangements. They come pell-mell upon you 
demanding a place in your consciousness; and it is not until you 
undertake to communicate your thoughts to another individual 
that you are aware of the necessity of language. Nor should you 
be aware of language any more than you are of the processes of 
thought. Habits of expression should be developed along with 
habits of thought, for the instant you begin to grow conscious of 
"how" you are speaking, that idea becomes the one uppermost in 
your mind and the thoughts you really wish to convey are lost, 
they fade out of mind. 



38 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Imagery and Words: The foregoing study has made clear the 
very close relationship between images and words. The word is 
necessary to describe the picture and the word must be in keeping 
with the pictorial setting. For instance the word waving suggests 
a certain type of image; in your mind an object is associated at 
once as being in the state of waving : now consider the word shiver- 
ing, and the image it arouses: would it be logical to think of a 
person shivering from the cold and to describe him as waving from 
the cold? 

Words are associated with each other in families or groups dif- 
fering slightly one from the other according to shades of meaning 
due to current usage, images aroused, etc. The student of speech 
practicing careful discrimination can soon enlarge his powers of 
accurate expression so that he is able to speak the idea he really 
wishes to without ambiguity and generalities. Considerate selec- 
tion of the best oral word or phrase is a habit worthy of cultivation ; 
it brings its reward in accurate thinking. 

Language Calls for Organization of Ideas. In speech, we think 
so much more rapidly than we talk that it is necessary to select only 
the few most important ideas for utterance; and then, too, we do 
not ' ' tell all we know ' \ like the child, but express only a sufficient 
number of ideas to make our meaning clear. Thus a process of 
selection and arrangement enters into language. Furthermore, we 
are bound by the conventions of language, the formal structure 
of grammar, etc., when we converse. These are rules to which we 
must conform, rules that have been built up in the development of 
the language; intelligibility depends upon our following them. 
But again it should be repeated, speech must progress with max- 
imum attention centered on ideas and with minimum attention on 
the mode of arrangement into language. 

ORGANIZING IDEAS 

Effective speaking demands purposive thinking. In the old time 
warfare, soldiers pointed their muskets or their cannon in the di- 
rection of the enemy and fired, there was no attempt to aim, and 
the shots scattered widely. In modern warfare, range is definitely 
obtained. The soldier aims his rifle specifically at an object, or 
the barrage is dropped upon a definite objective. Similarly with 
speech. Much that is spoken is not effective, and yet it might be 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 39 

made quite effective, were there a definite objective toward which 
the speaker directed his ideas. A definite purpose in the mind of 
the speaker enables him to focus his thought. 

Brander Mathews in his book Notes on Speech-Making, speaks 
of there being two types of occasion demanding speech ; one when 
the speaker has something to say, and the other when the speaker 
must say something. In the two occasions, the speaker who has 
something to say is much more apt to be effective with his auditors, 
but something to say, is not completely adequate. Says Professor 
Phillips, 1 in a book of which this chapter happens to be the title: 

The common error in regard to speech is the assumption that all that is 
necessary is to have ' ' something to say ' \ Utterly false ! Unless that ' ' some- 
thing to say ' - is said in accordance with the laws of human mind which govern 
conviction, it might as well be spoken to the wind. Let anyone who thinks that 
' ' something to say ' ' is the only requisite to effectiveness in speaking ask him- 
self how much of all he has heard has left a permanent impression upon his 
mind, and he will at once realize how necessary is a knowledge of the art of 
successful speaking. Or let him study the story of human progress. There he 
will see how slow is truth to find acceptance. Let him think how many human 
lives were sacrificed before truth could be got into the mind, that devils did 
not have habitations; let him think of the argument and eloquence needed be- 
fore men could be convinced that slavery was wrong; and he must surely admit 
that the importance of studying how best to form an opinion, and how best to 
convey it, is indeed great. The modern speaker, then, must rid himself of the 
notion that ' ' something to say ' ' is sufficient ; that the impulsive utterance of 
an idea will of itself secure belief or action. He must realize that besides 
' ' something to say ' ' he must learn how best to convey it . . . the truly 
effective speakers never have enthroned blind impulse as their God. The speak- 
er, if he would achieve his purpose and achieve it with the least effort, and that 
is art, he must realize that every step in the development of speech demands 
exercise of the judgment upon . . . objective. It concerns the listener, 
it is the question of, ' ' How can I get my listener to see my thought, to see my 
thought as clearly as I see it, to feel it as vividly as I feel it, to believe it as 
deeply as I believe it, to act upon it as sincerely as I act upon it?" 

Aristotle thought of the purposes of speech as being three, 
namely: to move, to convince, to praise or blame. Quintilian, on 
the other hand, thought of the ends of speech as, to inform, to move, 
to please. Phillips accepts the latter, but prefers to make two addi- 
tions: Clearness, and Impressiveness. But the writer is inclined 
to think that clearness and impressiveness are qualities which 



Phillips, A. E. Effective Speaking, pp. 13, 14. 



40 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

should apply to all speech ; no speech should not be clear, and all 
speech should be impressive according to degrees. The writer is 
inclined to make the following classification as one best meeting the 
demands of every day speaking, at the present time : 

1. To inform 

2. To prove 

3. To persuade 

24. SPEAK FOR A DOMINANT PURPOSE. 

Effective speaking demands the selection of a dominant purpose. 
One may speak for the purpose of communicating information 
solely, or he may desire to persuade an individual to a certain 
course of action; but before it is possible to persuade him it may 
oe necessary to communicate certain information, and in this case, 
two purposes one subsidiary to the other are selected in order that 
htf general effect may be one of persuasion. Moreover, a speaker 
may have in mind, conveying information, but he may also prove 
as well. Parts of any talk may utilize any one of the three dom- 
Jjant purposes, but the general effect should be definite^ either to 
convey information, or to prove, or persuade. 

1. To Inform. This dominant purpose is used when the speaker 
desires to give directions, to explain a process, or to discuss the 
meaning of certain facts and their relationship one to the other. 
It is the dominant purpose of the teacher in the class-room, of the 
business man explaining before his board of directors the condi- 
tions of the business which demand attention. It is the dominant 
purpose of the scientist, as he explains some theory, or inventor 
as he tries to make clear the value of the invention which he wishes 
to place upon the market. The literaiy form which corresponds 
to this dominant purpose is exposition and sometimes narration. 
Exposition forms a large part of the foundation in argumentation 
for conviction and persuasion. Many misunderstandings and dis- 
putes arise from lack of information. An exposition of the facts 
in the case, enabling the auditor to understand, will often end an 
argument. 

2. To Prove. This Dominant Purpose serves to establish the 
truth of a proposition ; it is concerned only with truth and error. 
It does not refer to the giving of information, only in so far as 
information is essential to a proper interpretation of argument. 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 41 

It deals with reasons, with the array of evidence. It calls for a 
careful use of one 's powers of logical thought and ability to detect 
fallacies. It deals with facts rather than motives of human con- 
duct. It presupposes that a question of doubt exists and it either 
affirms or denies or shows the desirability of middle ground. The 
use of this Dominant Purpose is possible only where an idea is 
subject to challenge, where some point is debatable, where evidence 
can be offered establishing the complete truth or tending to estab- 
lish truth. 

Of the three Dominant Purposes, to prove is used least in ordi- 
nary conversation and business relationships. We do not care to 
reason out a truth, sufficiently, or to listen to some one present a 
conclusive argument. Time is too short, we say ; we prefer to take 
some one's word for the truth or to try out the proposition and 
judge afterwards. Few advertisements, if any, ever present a 
conclusive argument for their claim; probably we should not read 
them if they did. Nevertheless, this Dominant Purpose plays a 
most important part in some instances of social relationship and a 
study of its principles of effectiveness is necessary. Someone must 
prove ; someone must establish the validity or invalidity of what 
people generally accept. Most of us act on what we think to be 
the truth regarding facts; we change our opinions only as we get 
new evidence, either from our own observations or from the infor- 
mation furnished by others. This Dominant Purpose is used in 
such cases as an executive speaking to prove to his board of direc- 
tors that a new plant should be built to supplement the old factory, 
an attorney arguing a point before a judge, a salesmanager show- 
ing a group of his salesmen in what features their product excels 
that of a competitor. Its use demands some understanding of 
the nature and service of evidence, and as well, a note of warning 
against a type of argument that degenerates into mere conten- 
tiousness. 

25. DEBATE TO ESTABLISH TRUTH, NOT TOE THE SAKE OF 
ARGUMENT. 

Some individuals like to argue just for the sake of argument. 
They have few convictions and are willing to discuss either side of 
a question, apparently lacking the power of weighing evidence. 
One should guard against such practice and refuse to indulge in it ; 



42 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

such an indulgence will in the long run diminish one's keenness 
of judgment as to the relative merits of evidence. Be open minded, 
at all times; but seek truth. 

26. UNDERSTAND THE USE OF EVIDENCE. 

The use of evidence calls for clear and accurate thinking; and, 
especially concrete thinking, — thinking that is to the point. Gen- 
eralities have no place in the quest for the truth of fact. Thorough 
analysis and exact definition of the point under debate are essen- 
tial. You must determine just where you agree and just where you 
differ from your auditor; you must find what are usually termed 
the issues of the question under discussion. 

In stating this principle urging an understanding of the use of 
evidence, the author does not mean to refer to an exhaustive study 
and application of the rules of evidence. Such belongs to a special 
treatise and to a course of study involving the fundamentals of 
argumentation alone. One should understand the use of evidence 
to the degree, at least, that he will be able to and will distinguish 
between mere assertion of truth without supporting facts, and 
argument which offers evidence and facts that provide the basis 
for a claim of truth. 

O'Neill 1 lists the kinds of evidence as 

a. Direct or circumstantial 

b. Keal or personal 

c. Original or hearsay 

d. Negative evidence 

e. Expert evidence, evidence based 

upon the statement of an authority. 

As to evidence and proof, O'Neill 2 further states: 

When men in debate or discussion make statements that are not at once 
accepted, or which they fear will not be accepted, it is common to present 
evidence to prove that they are right. Certain facts are presented as evidence 
from which it may be inferred that the statements made are true. By evidence, 
then, is meant any matter of fact which may be used in generating proof. 
Reasoning or inference (or argument in one sense of the word) means a 
process of thought by which we evolve or substantiate conclusions not self- 
evident in the facts with which we deal. 

It is important that in dealing with evidence and argument we distinguish 



i O'Neill, J. M. A Manual of Debate and Oral Discission., p. 59. 
2 Ibid., p. 60. 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 43 

"between the evidence, i. e., the matter of fact from which we reason, and the 
reasoning in which we indulge. Seasoning about facts is not evidence. The 
term ''proof" is used to cover the whole process of using evidence and argu- 
ment for the purpose of establishing conclusions; so proof may be said to con- 
sist of evidence and argument. The word ' ' proof ' ' is sometimes used to mean 
the result or effect of argument, instead of simply the word covering the whole 
process. Using proof in this sense we might say that evidence is the raw 
material, argument or reasoning or inference is the process or method, and 
proof is the finished product. 

3. To Persuade. This Dominant Purpose differs from the others 
in that it seeks to influence human action, solely. Very few of us 
act on the basis of judgment arrived at by a process of detailed, 
careful and exhaustive reasoning. We act in such and such a 
manner just because so and so acts that way; we wear clothing of 
the latest fashion, not because it is particularly becoming to us, but 
because every one else wears clothing of a similar kind. As 
students, we go to more parties a week, probably, than we should, 
yet, "everybody does" is sufficient reason to justify us. Or, we 
may buy a new pair of shoes, not because we need them, but "just 
because I liked them". One or two factors assume great argumen- 
tative value and we act upon such with little thought of other 
factors that might have entered in. Most human action, then, is 
not the result of careful review of proof, but, of suggestion which 
influences the mind in a manner similar to proof. We act some- 
times on the basis of an argumentative suggestion in a fashion that 
we think will be justified by careful thought, but again we act on 
impulse with almost no reflection. Let this distinction be clearly 
observed, however, that action in response to suggestion is not blind 
impulsiveness, unreasoning and insane, even though later experi- 
ence or reflection fails to justify the act. At the moment of the 
action, the mind justified it. The appeal was to a conviction or 
fundamental desire which had been accepted by the mind at some 
earlier period as legitimate. The appeal of proof is to a judgment 
that requires the consideration of all the elements involved, includ- 
ing elements that are more impersonal ; the appeal of persuasion is 
to a judgment that requires only one, or at most only a few ele- 
ments, and those must be related to your own self, to your own be- 
liefs or desires or cravings, to your own course of action in the mat- 
ter. For this reason, it is often said that persuasion appeals to the 
emotions, while proof appeals to the reason. Reason may be im- 



44 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

personal, the emotions cannot be. The appeals possible through 
persuasion, therefore, are to established habits or states of mind. 
An exhaustive classification of these states or habits is not neces- 
sary, even if possible. Every individual is well enough acquainted 
with those within him that justify action; and they are not the 
same for all individuals. In the main the appeals are to one's 
sense of honor, love of fair-play, regard for the weak, admiration 
for the strong, love of the beautiful, abhorrence for the vile, filial 
devotion and affection, desire for personal ownership, to vanity, 
reputation, etc. You will find it interesting and profitable to lay 
aside this discussion for a few minutes and list some of the appeals 
you are subject to, especially those that have influenced your acts 
within the last twenty-four hours. Some people yield to one ap- 
peal more than to others, but largely people yield to about the 
same larger appeals, such as honor, personal pride, sense of justice, 
desire for personal ownership, etc. 

27. APPEAL TO SPECIFIC MENTAL HABITS FOR EFFECTIVE PER- 
SUASIVE SUGGESTION. 

To secure action, analyze carefully what appeals are possible, 
then select that one which you feel will most influence your auditor. 
Few, rather than many, appeals are most effective ; and they should 
be to a specific emotion or mental trait. If you are urging fellow 
students to attend the basket-ball game or the "big football game 
of the season ' ', there is no stronger appeal, ordinarily, to the right- 
minded student than "Support the team". The appeal is to the 
auditor's sense of justice, of honor, and of reputation, all of which 
are much the same. 

Professor Scott 1 in discussing the nature of suggestion, states, 
"The working of suggestion is dependent upon the impulsive, dy- 
namic nature of ideas . . . every idea of an action will result 
in that action unless hindered by an impeding idea or physical 
impediment. . . . Every idea, concept or conclusion which en- 
ters the mind is held as true unless hindered by some contradictory 
idea. . . . Suggestion includes no comparison or criticism." He 
further states when to use suggestions in influencing men. Sug- 
gestion is preferable to proof or argument, 

a. When inadequate time is given for arguments 



3 Scott, W. D. Influencing Men in Business, pp. 4G. 47. 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 45 

b. In securing action following proof 

c. As a supplementary method of convincing 

d. In dealing with the general public 

e. For securing immediate action 

The following are well known suggestions to action, 

' ' Women and children first. ' ' 

' ' Is that fair ? ' ' 

1 ' Would you treat a friend that way ? ' ' 

"Buy chains and avoid sad consequences of automobile accident." 

"You ought to attend church regularly." 

"Be a manager, take our correspondence course." 

' ' Eat, live and be merry, for tomorrow we die. ' ' 

One can easily add to this list from his own experience, indefi- 
nitely. 

Qualities in the Speaker that Contribute toward Effective Per- 
suasion. What and who a speaker is carries considerable weight 
in persuasion; a child will mind a parent readily, but refuse to be 
commanded by a playmate of the same age. If a friend is needy 
financially, we will sacrifice more readily to help him than we 
would feel justified in sacrificing to help a stranger about whose 
needs we knew little. The speaker, himself, is an important con- 
sideration in effective persuasion. Foster, 1 in discussing the 
sources of persuasion emphasizes the attributes of the man who 
seeks to persuade others to action; he suggests as being most 
necessary, 

Sincerity 
Earnestness 
Simplicity 
Fairness 
Self-control 
Sense of humor 
Sympathy 
Openness of mind 
Personal magnetism 

These qualities need not be discussed, we all know their impor- 
tance and that impressiveness and command of personality are not 
possible where they do not exist. Strength of purpose and char- 
acter are reflected in the poise of the body, appearance of the facial 



1 Foster, W. T. Argumentation and Debating, pp. 263-9. 



46 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

features and look of the eye. A frank look from the eye of the 
speaker stimulates confidence ; a shifting glance leads, us to believe 
that his confidence in what he says lacks stability. So important 
is this factor that it may be listed among the principles of effective 
speaking, — 

28. LOOK AT YOUR AUDITOR, NOT AT THE FLOOR, CEILING OR 
SKY. 

29. USE SERIOUS OR HUMOROUS DISCUSSION AND ILLUSTRATION 
OF YOUR THOUGHT AS YOU THINK EACH CONTRIBUTES TO 
EFFECTIVENESS. 

Some writers on the principles of speaking list as a separate 
Dominant Purpose speech that has as its end entertainment. This 
need not be ; an argument may be entertaining and quite humorous, 
it may be serious. Similarly an informational talk need not be 
serious, wholly. Sometimes a humorous suggestion makes one of 
the very best persuasive ideas. The subject, occasion and the 
auditor govern the usage. When dealing with issues of great mo- 
ment or feeling of deep sentiment, humor is likely to be quite out 
of place. On the other hand, in every day activity, humor is the 
"safety valve". 

30. ESTABLISH YOUR POINT. 

Writers use paragraphs and rhetorical periods to set forth com- 
plete ideas; speakers use "points". Train to stay by the statement 
of an idea until your point is clearly established. All that has 
preceded in the discussion of the chapter has been to enable one to 
"make his point". 

31. SELECT THE MODE OF DELIVERY THAT BEST ENABLES YOU 
TO ACCOMPLISH YOUR DOMINANT PURPOSE. 

Considering the auditor as a listening mind accepting or reject- 
ing your thought, there are five modes of delivery more or less 
distinct from one another, any one of which may be used in com- 
municating ideas. They are: 

1. Impromptu. This is the type of delivery which is used when 
the speaker has had no opportunity to organize and arrange his 
thoughts for presentation, before being called upon to express them. 
He must organize his thoughts as he speaks before the auditor. In 






EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 47 

this type of delivery there is apt to be more or less disorganization 
of language, as well as of thought. It has its occasion in regular 
conversation; its advantage is that of spontaneity of thought; its 
disadvantage is that which follows lack of reflection and definite 
arrangement of ideas. 

2. Extempore. This type of delivery differs only from the 
Impromptu in that the speaker has had time to arrange his ideas 
in more or less definite form, but has been unable to select the 
words that he wishes to use. For all general purposes, extempora- 
neous speaking presents the most effective mode of delivery. It has 
the advantage of spontaneity in that the speaker's thought must be 
quite clear and forceful or he will not be able to select the most 
impressive words. He must think to the point, therefore. It 
furthermore has the advantage of arrangement and definiteness. 

3. Memoriter. In this mode of delivery the speaker has had 
time to prepare his thoughts definitely and to select the words. 
Ordinarily, he has put his ideas into writing, and has memorized 
the phraseology for delivery; or, it may be that he has simply 
memorized the arrangement and the words without having put the 
ideas into writing. The advantage of this mode of delivery is 
definiteness, the disadvantage is apt to be lack of spontaneity and 
forcefulness. 

Note: The student is urged to become acquainted with the rules of memory 
training in some such authoritative, yet readable, work as Professor C. E. 
Seashore's Psychology in Daily Life, Chapter II, Serviceable Memory, pp. 
38-68 (Appletons). 

4. Reading. As the title suggests, this is the mode in which 
the speaker has definitely prepared both the arrangement of his 
thought and the phraseology and put it into writing. He reads 
his thoughts to the auditor. This method possesses all the weak- 
nesses of the memoriter method together with the handicap that 
accompanies the inability of the speaker to look his auditor in the 
eye. It is quite essential that he keep his eye much of the time 
upon the printed page, or the written manuscript, so that he may 
follow his words. It has the advantage of being definite, however, 
and many speakers have preferred to read their thoughts to the 
audience, when they felt unsafe in memorizing or in using the 
extempore or memoriter methods. 



48 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

5. Combination. The combination mode is that used when the 
one speaks, in part, impromptu or extempore with some section 
of his thoughts memorized; or, he may read points which he has 
wished to be very definite, from a manuscript or book. As the 
title suggests, it is a combination of one or more, or the use of all 
the modes of delivery. Its advantage and handicaps rest with the 
advantage and handicaps common to each of the four modes of 
delivery. 



EFFECTIVE SPEAKING 49 

ASSIGNMENTS 

1. What is meant by a ''sensitive appreciation of meaning"? 

2. Do we think by means of words; can we think without words? 

3. How do mental pictures or images influence our thoughts? 

4. What does the term "creative imagination" mean to you? 

5. What is meant by "purposive thinking"? 

6. Is the advice, "have something to say," often given to young public 
speakers, adequate? 

7. What are the Dominant Purposes for speaking, suggested in the fore- 
going chapter? Do you agree with the list, or would you append others? (On 
this subject, the instructor may well assign references to the student on domi- 
nant purposes or general ends of speaking for reports in class. It is essential 
that the student develop a keen sense of purpose, of motive, in speaking.) 

8. Is the point of Principle No. 25 well-taken? 

9. What is meant by the term ' ' evidence ' ' ? 

10. How do the Dominant Purposes listed in the chapter differ from one 
another ? 

11. Make a list of ten well known suggestions to action. 

12. What is your attitude toward the merit of the list of qualities which 
contribute effectiveness in persuasion listed under Principle No. 27? 

13. Why do you think speakers so often do not look their auditors in the 
eye? 

14. What is meant by the principle, "Establish your point"? 

15. Principle No. 31; what considerations influence the use of each of the 
modes of delivery? Generally considered, which mode best holds your atten- 
tion? Why? 

15. Give a talk, of definite time limit, in which your Dominant Purpose is, — 

a. To inform, or 

b. To prove, or 

c. To persuade. 

16. Present to the class a "selling talk", of definite time limit, urging the 
points of merit of some article of commerce. At the close of your talk, meet 
in so far as is possible, the objections to purchasing the article that the mem- 
bers of the class may raise. 

17. Let the instructor select members of the class for a short series of de- 
bates the purpose of which is to bring out the basis of truth as conceived by 
the speakers with reference to debatable questions. Select propositions that 
are of interest and within the full appreciation of the members of the class. 
Let the class vote at the close of each debate as to which side presented the 
more convincing and effective argument. This exercise may be varied by as- 
signing to two members of the class the affirmative and the negative side of a 
proposition, respectively. After the debate, throw open the discussion to the 
class. 



Chapter III 

OUTLINE ARRANGEMENT 

The purpose of the first two chapters is to give a survey of the 
larger principles of speaking in so far as interest and effectiveness 
are concerned. Throughout these chapters the necessity of clear 
thinking has been emphasized. We now take up the discussion of 
Outline Arrangement of ideas which is important not only as an 
aid to the arrangement of ideas for any particular talk, but im- 
portant as a factor in developing habits of clear thinking. 

PRELIMINARY OUTLINE 

Collecting Material. For the usual types of conversation, one 
does not have the time to look up material. But for all speech 
purposes where the speaker's immediate information is inadequate, 
his first step should be the gathering of the data necessary. He 
should not attempt to form an adequate outline until he has fin- 
ished this preliminary work of collecting material. Furthermore, 
he should begin collecting his material a sufficient length of time 
before he is to give the talk so as to have opportunity for reflection 
and careful preparation. A rigorous devotion to careful outline 
arrangement in one's early period of training will establish habits 
of thinking to the point and of cumulating facts effectively. Such 
ability will, with a mind well stocked with information on the sub- 
jects at hand, increase one's speech efficiency to a marked degree. 
Says Professor Linn, 1 ''Of course to anyone with a trained mind 
the process of organization becomes very largely mechanical. The 
matters of importance and of interest arrange themselves uncon- 
sciously in his mind. His point of view, like some chemical re- 
action, affects their specific gravity and they inevitably bob up 
to the surface of his mind. But such a desirable state of affairs 
is brought about only by practice and training, and for a long time 
any composition must be preceded by the most conscientious and 



i Essentials of English Composition, p. 13. 
50 



OUTLINE ARRANGEMENT 51 

conscious thinking out." In gathering material, first think the 
subject over, analyze it ; then, begin to gather material by observa- 
tion, conversation, and reading. 

Analysis. " Think yourself empty, before you read yourself 
full", is good advice. If you begin to read on your subject, with- 
out adequate analysis, you will not know what to read nor what 
value to place on what you read. The first step is analysis. Go 
over the information you have in mind on the topic, finding out 
where the gaps occur in what you know to be trustworthy facts, 
then you will be ready to take the next steps which are observing, 
reading and conversing with reference to your subject. 

Beading. First try to find in the library the information you 
need to fill the gaps, to satisfy doubt or uncertainty. Your best 
friends in this quest are the librarian and the card catalogue. Each 
will give you references and following up these will lead you to 
other references and so on until you will have sufficient bibliogra- 
phy. Read, taking carefully compiled notes which you will have 
no difficulty in interpreting later. 

Observation. Observation must be appreciative. You must not 
only know what to look for and where to look, but be able to inter- 
pret what you see. The importance of observation as an aid in 
collecting material, will, of course, depend upon the subject at hand. 

Conversation. Get in touch with authorities on your subject. 
Meet them personally to get their enthusiasm or disregard toward 
your proposition. Wide conversation with those who have specific 
information is one of the chief methods of finding out worthwhile 
facts. Said Daniel Webster to Charles Sumner, in discussing the 
value of conversation, i ' In my education, I have found that conver- 
sation with the intelligent men I have had the good fortune to 
meet has done more for me than books ever did; for I learn more 
from them in a talk of half an hour than I could possibly learn 
from their books. Their minds, in their conversations, come into 
intimate contact with my own mind; and I absorb certain secrets 
of their power, whatever be its quality, which I could not have 
detected in their works. Converse, converse, converse with living 
men, face to face, and mind to mind, — that is one of the best 
sources of knowledge." 

Retaining Facts Gathered. Some prefer to read without the 
interruption of note-making, depending upon the memory to retain 



52 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

the facts. For those who possess memories equal to the task, this 
method is quite satisfactory. But you should be sure that your 
memory is equal to the task before attempting it. At any rate, the 
memory must play a very large part in gathering data in the form 
of notes; so it is suggested that you refer to the note on memory 
training, p. 47. 

Another method of retaining facts, and for most people the best 
method, is the "filing system". Your instructor or any stationer 
will be glad to explain these systems to you, and their use. Some 
are for sheets of paper, letter size, others for small cards, 3X5 or 
4X6 inches. Ordinarily the 3X5 inch card is large enough; only 
one fact should be put on a card so that the facts may be readily 
arranged into groups when you come to the outline. 

Dominant Purpose and Minor Purpose. You should not con- 
fuse the Dominant Purpose of the whole talk with some of the 
minor purposes of your subsidiary points. These may not be iden- 
tical with the Dominant Purpose, though contributing to it. For 
instance, your Dominant Purpose may be to explain what is meant 
by the term "speech training". To accomplish this, it may be 
necessary for you to prove that there are new methods today, more 
sound educationally, than those of old. Your minor purpose for 
this point then would become proof; yet, it does not detract from 
The Dominant Purpose or conflict with it. It reinforces and sup- 
plements it. 

Viewpoint. To establish the proper viewpoint toward your sub- 
ject, for the preliminary outlining, answer in your mind or def- 
initely on paper the following data: 

Viewpoint Standard 

r auditor ] 
What Dominant Purpose and Mode of Discussion do my -1 subject } 

[ occasion J 

demand ? 

What is my speaking time limit? 

My Dominant Thought or Key Sentence is 

My supplementary points are 

Need I use an Introduction ? If so, it should be 

Need I use a Conclusion? If so, it should be 

32. GO OVER POINTS OF PRELIMINARY OUTLINE ALOUD. 

This is quite essential, as by going over your points aloud you 
will become more able to select just what you wish for the perina- 



OUTLINE ARRANGEMENT 53 

nent outline. Talking over these points gives a sense of proportion, 
so that you can judge what points need more time and what 
points less, so as to keep within the time allotted you. This exer- 
cise also helps to fix more firmly in mind the major points of your 
discussion. 

PERMANENT OUTLINE 

Having determined the data of the Viewpoint Standard and gone 
over your points aloud a few times, next proceed to put your ideas 
into definite outline arrangement, according to the Dominant Pur- 
pose selected. 

Dominant Purpose: To Inform. With your subject of Domi- 
nant Thought in mind, 

a. Select the few main points you wish to present. 

b. Next, arrange these in the order of importance chronolog- 
ically, logically, or upon some basis you deem effective. 

c. Take up your first point. Ask yourself what ideas you wish 
to present to make this point clear, interesting and effective. 

d. Arrange these sub-points in the order of importance. 

e. Then proceed in the same manner for the remaining points of 
your outline. 

f. Now take up each sub-head and repeat the process, until you 
feel your outline is complete. 

Note: If an introduction is used, select as its main point that 
which best introduces to the auditor the subject of the talk. Then, 
outline sub-heads as for any other point. "Where a Conclusion is 
used, let it be a summary of the main points. 

Illustration 

Step 1. General subject, Education 

Narrowed subject, Types of Education; Speech Education; Speech 

Training 
Points selected 

I. What it is 
II. Practical applications 
III. Old and new methods of training 

Step 2. Order of importance determined 
I. What it is 
II. Old and New Methods of Training 
III. Practical applications 



54 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Step 3. List sub-heads for first point 
I. What it is 

A. Training in pronunciation 

B. Training in articulation 

C. Training to think before others 

Step 4. Rearrange in order of importance 
I. What it is 

A. Training to think before others 

B. Training in articulation 

C. Training in pronunciation 

Step 5. Proceed in the same manner for the next main points 
II. Old and new methods of training 
III. Practical applications 

Step 6. Now return to the first sub-head and repeat the procedure 
A. Training to think before others 

1. Timidity 

2. Considering the interests of the auditor 

3. Practice 

Rearrange in the order of importance, and so on through the outline. 
A. Training to think before others 

1. Considering the interests of the auditor 

2. Timidity 

3. Practice 



Permanent Outline 

Subject: Speech Training 
I. What it is 

A. Training to think before others 

1. Considering the interests of the auditor 

2. Timidity 

3. Practice 

B. Training in articulation 

1 

a 

2 

C. Training in pronunciation 

1 

II. Old and new methods 

A 

1 

B 



OUTLINE ARRANGEMENT 55 

III. Practical applications 

A 

B 

1 

2 

3. 

4 

Dominant Purpose: To Prove. The most satisfactory outline 
for this Dominant Purpose is similar to the Brief, in which each 
main point or contention is proved by the data of the sub-topics. 

Note: Outlining by means of the formal brief, like the rules of 
evidence, belongs to a specific course in argumentation. 

Dominant Purpose : To Persuade. In outlining for this Domi- 
nant Purpose, it is necessary to select specifically the mental habit, 
trait, or emotion you wish to appeal to. This may be accomplished 
by arranging three columns on your paper. In the left hand col- 
umn, place a statement of what you wish the auditor to do ; in the 
middle column, what mental habit you wish to appeal to; and in 
the right hand column, the phraseology of the suggestion of appeal. 

Illustration 
Arrangement for Listing Suggestions 



Buy a ticket to 
the ball game 


Loyalty 


"Support the team'' 



EXPANDING THE OUTLINE 

33. OBSERVE THE QUALITIES OF GOOD USAGE IN ORAL STYLE. 

The outline may now be expanded into full and final form by 
oral rehearsal or by writing. In either case observe the rhetorical 
principles of 

Unity 

Emphasis 

Coherence 

In speaking from the outline guard against inelegant usage, 
especially incorrect grammar. Practice speaking from outlines. 

34. PRACTICE SPEAKING FROM PERMANENT OUTLINES. 



56 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

ASSIGNMENTS 

1. What is the importance of "analysis" in preparing for a talk? 

2. How do you acquire information on a subject most readily, by reading, 
by observation, or by conversation? What are the particular merits of each 
method? 

3. Report to the class an adequate system of taking notes and of filing the 
same for ready reference on small cards. 

4. Report to the class an adequate system of taking notes and of filing 
them for ready reference on sheets of paper. 

5. Which method of filing notes do you, personally, prefer? 

6. What is meant by "viewpoint" in the preliminary outline? 

7. What are the advantages in going over the preliminary outline, aloud? 

8. Hand in a list of suggestive appeals the purpose of which is to persuade 
to a definite line of action. 

9. What is meant by 

a. ' ' expanding the outline ' ' ? 

b. "good usage in oral style"? 

10. Does oral style differ from written? How? 

11. What are the advantages of training in speaking from definitely pre- 
pared ' ' permanent outlines ; ' ? 

12. Hand in a Viewpoint Standard as a preliminary analysis of some sub- 
ject of interest to you. 

13. Hand in a Permanent Outline for the discussion of some subject of in- 
terest to you and to the class with the Dominant Purpose of giving information. 

14. Hand in an outline with the Dominant Purpose of proving, arranging 
the points of evidence one under the other logically. 



Chapter IV 

CO-ORDINATION OF THOUGHT WITH VOICE 
AND ACTION 

The purpose of the foregoing part of the text has been to make 
clear the fact that the essential element in speech, is thought, 
something to say, and clear thinking in the organization of ideas 
for expression. The purpose of the following chapters on the use 
of voice and gesture, on articulation and pronunciation, and on the 
speech instrument is to present the principles that should be ob- 
served in training for coordination. At this point in our study, 
we attempt to connect delivery with thought. 

35. CO-ORDINATE YOUR THOUGHT WITH VOICE AND ACTION. 

The meaning of the word, coordinate, is to adjust or to harmon- 
ize. In this sense let us consider the principle of coordination. 

If one wishes to learn to play the piano, he must train. Train 
what? The muscles that control the movement of the fingers and 
arms. Train them how? In such a fashion that they will cause 
the fingers to strike the right keys at the proper time. The problem 
confronting one who wishes to learn to play the piano is one of co- 
ordination. Before him is the sheet of music which can be read 
by the eye; before him also is the piano key-board. Yet there is 
no melody from the piano until he can bring together the notes of 
the instrument with the notes perceived upon the sheet of music. 
One may be able to think beautiful melodies for the piano, but no 
one else can appreciate these until they can be expressed through 
the keys of the piano. One must harmonize, coordinate, the thought 
of the mind with the muscles of the body. Why do coaches put 
football teams through such long and rigorous periods of training ? 
To establish with the thought that must dominate the plays of the 
game quick and accurate muscular response, adjustment, harmony, 
coordination. Every muscle must respond automatically to the 
signal called for the play. Whether it is in the playing of the 
piano, carrying out a signal in a football game, throwing the basket 
in a basket-ball game, painting a picture, crocheting a pattern, 

57 



58 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

writing a letter, walking or talking, the thought of the mind must 
be coordinated with the muscles of the body for the execution of 
the action. 

The thought of the mind must find full response in the action 
of the body. The great singer is not able to produce the beautiful 
tone until he or she has trained the vocal cords to respond with 
the melody desired. One may have a definite thought in mind 
but not be able to put it into action ; for instance, one may be able 
to conceive of all the motions necessary to swim, yet not be able 
to swim actually. Training is necessary to establish coordination 
between the thought of the mind, and the movements of the body. 
The speaker may have clearly in mind his idea and yet may not 
be able to coordinate the organs of speech and gesture so as to com- 
municate his thought effectively. Through the long ages of the 
development of the human race and its mode of speaking, there 
have come certain inflections of the voice which carry a definite 
type of meaning, certain gestures which express a definite idea. 
One may understand the meaning of these inflections of voice, and 
gestures; yet, he will not be able to communicate thought and 
emotion to another individual unless he can reproduce the inflec- 
tions of the voice, and the gestures, indicative of the thought and 
emotion. 

36. SPEAK CONVERSATIONALLY. 

If speech is the medium through which two minds communicate 
their thought, the commonest form of coordination for the speaker 
is conversation: the basis, then, of all speech should be conversa- 
tion. For during the history of the race this has been built up 
as the type of speech to which we can listen most readily, and 
through which we gather ideas most rapidly. No one needs to be 
told what conversational speech is. We all are able to recognize 
a speaker who is not conversational, although no two speakers are 
conversational just alike. Generally considered, no student is apt 
to be found who in social relationship is unconversational or who 
in giving a simple narrative to the class of the events that have 
happened in some personal experience or in giving an exposition 
on some process or invention, will be unconversational. Therefore, 
we can work with a standard that is more or less uniform through- 
out the class. The period of training in which unconversational 



CO-ORDINATION 59 

delivery becomes apparent is that when we attempt to deliver talks 
that we have spoken before, that have become quite familiar to us. 
We repeat them more or less automatically without grasping the 
meaning, as we did when we spoke them for the first time. Or 
we meet the same difficulty when we attempt to read a selection to 
the members of the class. The student should not understand by 
the foregoing statement that all speakers, especially beginners, 
are perfect as conversational speakers. Imperfections will be dis- 
covered and ample room for development be found. The essence 
of conversational delivery is directness. Directness involves an at- 
titude of mind in which the speaker consciously thinks his thought 
out to his auditor. It is an attitude of mind in which the speaker 
is aware of his auditor's thinking with him, making objections or 
agreeing as he speaks : in other words, the auditor is thinking right 
along with the ideas expressed by the speaker. The chief foe to 
directness of speech found among students is the tendency to neg- 
lect the existence of the auditor. The student is apt to speak 
somewhat to himself, as though no listener existed. Straight for- 
wardness, simplicity, and sincerity are all embraced in the thought 
of conversational address. The auditor is very quick to note any 
artificiality of manner or of tone as the speaker gives forth his 
thought. 

In his book, Elements of Public Speaking, Houghton discusses 
the Conversational Mode as follows: "The first principle of de- 
livery that the young speaker has to learn is that sonorous tones 
and spectacular gestures do not constitute effective speaking, and 
that voice and gesture are not ends in themselves, but are merely 
means for the sincere expression of one's thought and feeling. . . . 
The demand of the present day, is for speaking of a conversational, 
business-like type, without display or fustian, that carries a mes- 
sage straight to the hearers in the most unaffected manner possible. 
.... All effective speaking should have as its basis plain conver- 
sation — the direct communication between man and man .... 
when a man sits down to discuss a topic with a friend, he does not 
assume an artificial tone of voice ; neither are his vocal inflections 
monotonous and inexpressive. On the contrary, they are quite the 
opposite, his tone of voice is that of very natural conversation, and 
his inflections, pauses, and the like, give the natural variety of 
expression that conveys in a very clear manner the ideas he is 



60 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

trying to present. Exactly the same thing should be done if he 
were to stand before an audience to express his views upon a given 
subject." 

The relationship between the conversation that is used in in- 
formal speaking and that used in the somewhat more formal type 
of address, termed Public Speaking, is well illustrated in Winan's 1 
conception. In his chapter on Conversing With An Audience, he 
says, "Imagine all memory of speech-making to be blotted out, so 
there is no person in the world who remembers that he has ever 
made a speech or heard a speech. Imagine, too, all speeches and 
all references to speeches in literature, to be blotted out ; so that 
there is no clue to this art. Is this the end of speech making? 
Here comes a man who has seen a great race, or has been in a great 
battle, or is on fire with enthusiasm for a cause. He begins to 
talk with a friend he meets on the street ; others gather, twenty, 
fifty, a hundred. Interest grows intense; he lifts his voice that' 
all may hear. But the crowd wishes to hear and see the speaker 
better. ' Get upon this cart ! ' they cry ; and he mounts the cart 
and goes on with his story or his plea. A private conversation has 
become public speech; but under the circumstances imagined it is 
thought of only as a conversation, as an enlarged conversation. 
It does not seem abnormal, but quite the natural thing. When 
does the talker or converser become a speech maker? When ten 
persons gather? Fifty? Or is it when he gets on the cart? Is 
there any real change in the nature or the spirit of the act ? Is it 
not essentially the same throughout, a conversation adapted to the 
growing number of his hearers as the talker proceeds? There 
may be a change, of course, if he becomes self-conscious; but as- 
suming that interest in story or argument remains the dominant 
emotion, there is no essential change in his speaking. It is prob- 
able that with the increasing importance of his position and the in- 
creasing tension of feeling that come with numbers, he gradually 
modifies his tone and his diction, and permits himself to launch 
into a bolder strain and a wider range of ideas and feeling than 
in ordinary conversation; but the change is in degree and not in 
kind. He is conversing with an audience. . . ." 

"I wish you could see that public speaking is a perfectly normal 



i Winans, J. A. Public Speaking, pp. 20, 21. 



CO-ORDINATION 61 

act, which calls for no strange artificial methods, but only for an 
extension and a development of that most familiar act, conversation. 
If you grasp this idea you will be saved from much wasted effort." 

VOICE 

27. MAKE MEANING CLEAR BY EMPHASIS. 

Engage in conversation with some friend, or listen to a public 
address: as the speaker talks how do you gather meaning from 
what he says? How t does he convey to you important as well as 
relatively unimportant mental pictures and ideas? Does he use a 
monotone and a constant intensity as he speaks, or does he use 
some variety of voice inflection and of intensity ? How do you as- 
certain wmen he closes a thought, that is, does he use any inflection 
of voice which conveys to you the same idea as the period in written 
composition? Does he communicate to you any strong emotion? 
It is quite apparent that there is a power in the voice to convey 
meaning. Through the development of the forms of expression in 
the human race, there have come certain definite modes of thought 
communication. These forms of communication we have observed 
from childhood and practised in our relationships with one another 
to convey our thoughts, our wants, our likes and dislikes. No one 
individual communicates his thoughts just like another, yet it is 
possible to understand the meaning of all. Some convey their 
meanings to us more readily than others, because they possess a 
facility in the use of the forms of expression over those who do not. 
A stress of voice on one idea gives us the conception that that idea 
is more important than the unstressed idea. Thus, we distinguish 
thought relationship. By the forms of emphasis the voice con- 
veys meanings. There is no definite relationship between the use 
of any one form of emphasis and the expression of an idea. A 
thought may be conveyed by one person using a certain type of 
emphasis ; but the same thought may be conveyed as adequately by 
another person using an entirely different type of emphasis. Cer- 
tain persons excel in the use of certain forms of emphasis. We 
may profit by determining what forms of emphasis we use success- 
fully. Then observe the speech of those who use successfully the 
forms not so common to our mode of expression. Adopt their 
methods of emphasis, also, in so far as naturalness permits. 



62 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Referring again to the above speaker, did yon note how he 
stressed the important thoughts and the new thoughts, minimizing 
the emphasis given the unimportant ideas ? Yet, he did not speak 
without any variation ; there was an emphasis characterizing minor 
ideas, too, though of a negative kind. We may think of the forms 
of emphasis, then, as being positive when they are used to bring 
out the new and most important thoughts, and as being negative 
when they aid the mind of the listener still to hold the distinction 
between the unimportant ideas. The forms of emphasis remain the 
same whether positive or negative, except that we accentuate the 
form of emphasis used when we desire the positive type. In the 
following sentence, 

"Life is real; life is earnest;" 

we give the words, "real," and "earnest/' a positive emphasis; 
retaining a negative emphasis on the two words, "life is," for of 
the two, the word "life" is the more important. 

There are four forms of emphasis by means of which the voice 
conveys meaning, — thought and emotion. These are Force, Pitch, 
Time, and Pause or Word Grouping. 

Speech always has a dominant thought. A speaker may take 
an hour to discuss before an audience the benefits of education in 
our regular schools. Regardless of how many facts or illustrations 
he refers to, he has a dominant thought or purpose in mind, namely, 
to point out the benefits of school education. And all the minor 
thoughts will bear a relationship to this dominant thought. On 
the other hand, two friends in a five minute visit over school days 
will in their conversation have a dominant thought to which all 
lesser thoughts are relevant, namely, "experiences of school days". 
Or, of course, they may have as many dominant thoughts as there 
have been subjects discussed between them. Actors before an 
audience portray characters and their actions, all of which converge 
toward a dominant thought, — the main thought of the drama. 
Every paragraph of literature possesses a dominant thought rele- 
vant to the whole discussion and likewise every sentence a dom- 
inant thought relevant to the paragraph. How, then, do we make 
apparent in speech these gradations of importance in thought? 
In other words, how do we speak out meaning? The answer is by 
emphasis. 






CO-ORDINATION 63 

In a monotone voice, where words are pronounced with equal 
speed, there is no appreciation of thought content and of meaning. 
Repeat the following sentences in such a voice, noticing the fact : 

' ' ' Forward the Light Brigade ! 
Charge for the guns,' he said." 

This is the happiest day of my life! 

Few of us every stop to think how and by what means we speak 
out thought content. This may account for the many inexpressive 
and monotonous voices we hear every day. 

What do we mean, then, by emphasis? Emphasis is an inflection, 
a break of inflection, or a group of inflections of the voice upon a 
syllable, word or phrase interpreting the thought. There are four 
forms of emphasis : 1. Force, 2. Pitch, 3. Time, and 4. Pause and 
Word Grouping. 

1. Force: The emphasis of force is a sudden increase or de- 
crease in the loudness or intensity of the general tone upon the 
emphatic thought. Speak the following sentences and note how 
thought is made clearer by additional force or stress of voice upon 
the italicized words ; then read suddenly decreasing the force upon 
the stressed words. 

1 ' They reported that his answer was an emphatic No. ' ' 

''Life is real, life is earnest 
And the grave is not its goal: 
Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 
Was not spoken of the soul. 
Not enjoyment and not sorrow- 
Is our destined end or way 
But to act that each tomorrow 
Finds us farther than to-day." 

2. Pitch: The emphasis of pitch is the speaking of the em- 
phatic thought in a higher or lower tone on the music scale. 
Thoughts may be emphasized by the preceding inflection, force, 
without varying the location of the tone on the music scale. Only 
the degree of loudness suggests the emphasis. But in emphasis of 
pitch, the degree of loudness may or may not be varied while the 
location of the tone on the music scale must be varied. The greater 
the emphasis desired the higher or lower is the emphatic thought 
spoken. The most effective drill for breaking up a monotone is 



64 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

practice in speaking or reading, bringing out thought content by 
means of the emphasis of pitch. 

Read the first few lines of Hamlet's Soliloquy, on Life and Death, 
in a monotone. Then employ variety in pitch in the reading and 
the interpretation will be more clear. 

not 

that 'a 
To be to be 

or the question. 

The meaning of tfie closing phrases of Lincoln's Gettysburg 
Address is also made clearer by this form of emphasis. 



that 


government — of the 




P 

1 




b 

the people 
7 


e 




f 

o the people 
r 




shall 


not 

from 
perish the 


earth. 



3. Time: The emphasis of time is rate: the rapid or slow pro- 
nunciation of the emphatic word or words. This form of emphasis 
differs from pause in that it always intonates the word or words to 
be emphasized while the pause always requires silence between 
such words. There are certain thoughts which no form of emphasis 
will interpret as satisfactorily as time. For instance, a person is 
late to a train and an anxious friend already aboard cries out, 
" Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry !" The words are pronounced in 
rapid rate or time and urge rapid movement. Or imagine the 
cheering words on the bleachers at a football game. ' ' Rah ! Rah ! 
Rah! Rah!" is repeated vigorously, vitally, and rapidly. Now 
repeat aloud pronouncing very slowly the above words, imagining 
the respective scenes and the correctness of rapid pronunciation 



CO-ORDINATION 65 

will be apparent at once. An individual probably would not walk 
calmly into a school room and quietly, although wisely, in a drawl- 
ing slowly timed emphasis, advise action with, 

"I w-i-s-h y-o-u w-o-u-l-d a-1-1 1-e-a-v-e t-h-e b-u-i-1-d-i-n-g a-t 
o-n-c-e f-o-r i-t i-s o-n f-i-r-e!" 

King Robert of Sicily, when he waked from his sleep and dis- 
covered beside him the "wretched ape", would not snap out the 
words rapidly as in haste ; but rather in keeping with the slowness 
of any mind just awakening from slumber. 

' ' Next morning, waking with the day 's first beam 
He said within himself, ' It — was — a — dream. ' ' ' 

Then the reader suggests how Robert's mind begins to take in 
the situation: the rate of rapidity with which the words are pro- 
nounced increases. 

' ' But the straw rustled as he turned his head, 
There were the cap and bells beside his bed, 
Around him rose the bare discolored walls, 
Close by, the steeds were champing in their stalls, 
And in the corner, a revolting shape 
Shivering and chattering sat the wretched ape! 
It was no dream; the world he loved so much 
Had turned to dust and ashes at his touch. ' ' 

The first stanza of Macaulay's "Battle of Ivry" requires rapidity 
of movement to interpret its thought of victory. 

Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are! 

And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre. 

Now let there be the merry sound of music and the dance, 

Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vales, pleasant land of France ! 

And thou, Kochelle, our own Eochelle, proud city of the waters, 

Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daughters; 

As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy, 

For cold and stiff and still are they who wrought thy walls annoy. 

Hurrah! hurrah! a single field hath turned the chance of war. 

Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry and King Henry of Navarre! 

4. Pause and Word Grouping: The emphasis of pause is the 
cessation of tone before or after an emphatic word. In the brief 
interval between the pronunciation of emphatic words the auditor 
has the opportunity to reflect upon their significance and thus the 
thought they convey is called to the listeners' mind more strongly. 



66 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

And should the auditor's thoughts have wandered from those which 
the speaker is presenting the pause has a tendency to bring the 
attention of the mind of the auditor back to the speaker's dis- 
cussion, thus imparting at least the most important ideas. When 
the content of thought is weighty and impressive it is almost an 
impossibility to interpret the meaning by any form of emphasis 
except the pause. Of course, the duration of the pause varies 
with the degree of emphasis desired. There may be shorter pauses 
and longer pauses. Referring again to Hamlet's Soliloquy, note 
as the first line is read aloud how adequate a means of emphasis the 
pause is and how inadequately the line is read without the pause. 
Single marks between words may suggest shorter pauses while two 
or more marks denote longer pauses. 

' l to be || or not I to be. | j That 's | j the question. ' ' 

The term "word grouping" itself suggests the form of emphasis. 
Word grouping means the arrangement of words logically, accord- 
ing to the thoughts they symbolize. Improper word grouping ob- 
scures the meaning. Proper word grouping tends to make the 
meaning clear, Read, for example, the following in a monotone 
at equal rate of pronunciation with no attempt to express meaning. 

"Give me a theme the little poet cried and I will 
do my part 'tis not a theme you need the world 
replied you need a heart. ' ' 

Now re-read the above and try to get the meaning. The reader 
at once notices a tendency to break the paragraph up into groups 
somewhat as follows, — 

"Give me a theme 
The little poet cried 
And I will do my part 
'Tis not a theme you need 
The world replied 
You need a heart." 

Re-read the above again and let the reader notice a tendency to 
place a longer pause after the word "part" than after any other 
group. Suppose we re-write the above with one short line | sig- 
nifying a short pause, two lines || signifying a longer pause and 



CO-ORDINATION 67 

three lines ||| a much longer pause than either of the preceding. 
We would have, — 

"Give me a theme | the little 
poet cried | and I will do my 
part I)) 'tis not a theme | 
you need 1 1 the world replied 1 1 
you | need a heart. ' ' 

These group meanings the printer attempts to bring out, although 
inadequately at times, by punctuation. The printer would write 
the above in the following manner, — 

' ' Give me a theme, ' ' the little poet cried, 

"And I will do my part." 
' ' 'Tis not a theme you need, ' ' the world replied, 

' ' You need a heart. ' ' 

— Richard Watson Gilder. 

Notice in the following passages how meaning is made clear or 
obscure according to the word grouping. 

1 1 And he spake to his sons saying Saddle me the ass and they saddled him. ' ' 
I Kings xiii, 27. 

The persons inside the coach were Mr. Miller a clergyman his son a lawyer 
Mr. Angelo a foreigner his lady and a little child. 

1 ' I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help 1 1 my 
help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. ' ' 

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills |j| from whence cometh my help | my 
help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. Bible — Psa. 121 : 
1 and 2. 

Esau Wood sawed wood. Esau Wood would saw wood. All the wood Esau 
Wood saw Esau would saw. In other words, all the wood Esau saw to saw 
Esau sought to saw. Oh, the wood Wood would saw! And oh! the wood-saw 
with which Wood would saw wood! But one day Wood's wood-saw would 
saw no wood, and thus the wood Wood sawed was not the wood Wood would 
saw if Wood's wood-saw would saw wood. Xow, Wood would saw wood with 
a wood-saw that would saw wood, so Esau sought a saw that would saw wood. 
One day Esau saw a saw saw wood as no other wood-saw Wood saw would saw 
wood. In fact, of all the wood-saws Wood ever saw saw wood Wood never 
saw a wood-saw that would saw wood as the wood-saw Wood saw saw wood 
would saw wood, and I never saw a wood-saw that would saw as the wood-saw 
Wood saw would saw until I saw Esau Wood saw wood with the wood-saw 
Wood saw saw wood. Now Wood saws wood with the wood-saw Wood saw 
saw wood. 



68 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Prof. S. H. Clark 1 tells a story of the principal of a high school 
in Germany "who entered the class room when the teacher of 
English was giving a lesson in punctuation, and particularly on 
the use of the comma. The principal did not believe in this kind 
of instruction and told the teacher so, who, after the principal had 
gone, wrote these words on the blackboard: 'The teacher says the 
principal is a fool.' When the principal saw the teacher again 
he was very angry and said, 'What do you mean by calling me a 
fool?' And the principal wrote the sentence on the blackboard. 
The teacher replied, 'Oh, yes, that's what I wrote; but you said, 
Mr. Principal, that commas didn't make any difference, so I paid 
no attention to them; but if you had not objected I should have 
written the sentence like this: "The teacher, says the principal, is 
a fool." 

38. COMMUNICATE EMOTION BY THE FORMS OF EMPHASIS PLUS 
VOICE QUALITY. 

It is next to impossible to state exactly how specific emotions or 
moods are communicated. Individuals differ so widely in their 
methods expressing emotions. Some are more emotional than oth- 
ers temperamentally and hence more emotional as speakers. Some 
suppress their emotions habitually. It is unnecessary in a text of 
this kind to enter into any elaborate discussion of the nature of 
emotion. No one will misunderstand what is meant by the term; 
we all feel mentally and spiritually, we are emotional beings. The 
one problem concerned with in this study is how emotional beings 
communicate their feelings. Even in this, no one will misunder- 
stand what is meant by emotional expression. You have the power 
to utter the simple word, "no," in such a manner as to convey the 
emotional meaning of finality, interrogation, doubt, etc. You can 
speak the common word "yes" with an emotional expression of 
anger, surprise or grief. Suppose you try, before you read further, 
to express with the voice using the words "no" or "yes" the above 
six emotions. As you gave expression to the words, did you not 
find it necessary to feel the emotion you wished to interpret? Did 
you not put yourself in some imaginary situation where you found 
it necessary to think the emotion as well? This is the key to emo- 
tional expression : think and feel the emotion and except in rare 



i Clark, S. H., Interpretation of the Printed Page, p. 178. 



CO-ORDINATION 69 

instances the voice will respond automatically and effectively with 
the right quality. 

But at this point you say, "I have heard people utter thought 
that was emotional yet without any quality of voice expressive of 
the right emotion or any indication that they understood the emo- 
tional value of their thought. ' ' True ; and it is with this fact that 
our discussion must deal. Your remark will characterize some 
members of your class, possibly yourself as well, who in a recitation 
or in association with strangers become self-conscious or unable to 
think the full values of their thought and speak as though oblivious 
to the emotional significance of their words. It may be that, in- 
stead of being self-conscious, they habitually restrain emotional 
expression. Be that as it may, interesting and effective speaking 
demand to some degree emotional expression of thought. Emo- 
tional expression must coordinate the thought with the proper 
voice quality : it would be artificial to describe the beauty of a scene 
in tones of anger ; or, surprise, in the tones of pity. 

Read aloud the following, vocalizing the emotion vividly and 
vigorously, — 

"The straw-pile! What delight we had in that! "What joy it was to go to 
the top where the men were stationed, one behind the other, and to have them 
toss huge forkfuls of the light fragrant stalks upon us, laughing to see us 
emerge from our golden cover. ' ' — Hamlin Garland. 1 

Re-read it, this time endeavoring to judge how you bring out 
the emotional values. As you re-read the selection, did you not 
see yourself in an imaginary straw-pile, or recall just such an ex- 
perience as Mr. Garland describes? The first time you read the 
passage, was not your chief concern with the meaning of the 
words? After you understood the thought of the description you 
were able to attach to it its emotional significance, in other words, 
to appreciate the sentiment. Is not the appreciation of meaning, 
then, the prime requisite for emotional expression? First one 
must understand the full meaning of his idea, that is fundamental, 
then he must seek to express its emotional significance. 

If you analyze the quality of voice with which you spoke the 
above passage, you will find that you used the forms of emphasis, 
one or more of them. But your expression included more than 



i A Son of the Middle Border, p. 54. 



70 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

that. There were peculiar qualities of voice resonance which you 
have developed from childhood up expressive of joy and gayety. 
It is immaterial for this study how you got these qualities and how 
you came to coordinate them with these emotions. Accept that 
as a fact. We may say, then, that emotional thought is expressed 
by coordinating the idea with the forms of emphasis to bring out 
meaning and with voice quality to convey emotional appreciation. 
Power of emotional expression in speech can be developed by "free- 
ing the emotional nature": be sociable, be sociable, be sociable, 
intelligently so. 

ACTION 

By the term "action" is meant all posture, gesture, or move- 
ment of the body expressive of thought and emotion. Possibly 
a better term would be simply that of gesture, writers in this field 
permit such usage. Mosher 1 defines gesture as follows: "Gesture 
may be broadly defined as visible expression, that is, any posture 
or movement of the head, face, body, limbs, or hands, which aids 
the speaker in conveying his message by appealing to the eye." 
But for the sake of being more specific, in this discussion the term 
gesture will refer more to the movement of the arms or hands. 

We now return to an amplification of Principle No. 20, set forth 
in the chapter on Attention and Interest, Develop Poise, Posture, 
and Gesture Interpretative of the Thought You Wish to Com- 
municate. 

All positions, movements and gestures in speech, whether on a 
platform or off, before many people or before one person, should 
be in keeping with the thought and emotion being uttered. Fur- 
thermore, position, movement and gesture should be natural, should 
facilitate the transmission of ideas, not hinder. 

Physical movement is a proper and legitimate means of convey- 
ing thought, a means that should be developed and cultivated. 
But care should be taken not to overdo it. Generally considered, 
little movement is preferable to much movement. Too much real- 
ism is apt to detract from the thought of the speaker more than 
less realism which at the same time is suggestive. The beginner 
should practice much, in private, to gain control of the muscles of 



i Mosher, J. A. The Essentials of Effective Gesture, p. 3. 



CO-ORDINATION 71 

the body. It is also highly desirable that positions, movements and 
gestures be practiced before a full-length mirror as often as con- 
venient. There is no better method of obtaining sympathetic crit- 
icism than by seeing one's self as others see him. Actors and 
interpretative artists find the mirror an indispensable aid and even 
such renowned speakers as Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher 
and Phillips Brooks were not averse to its criticisms. 

The positions and movements of the body are called positive 
when they are in keeping with the thought of the speaker, and 
are called negative when they detract from the thought or are 
meaningless. Slouchy position, shuffling and shambling movement 
of the feet and legs or disconcerting arrangements of the hands 
and arms are negative; they should be avoided. The positive 
posture is the intelligent attitude and it is commanding at all times. 
Comparison of the postures of good speakers and poor speakers 
will soon enable the student to judge for himself between these 
negative and positive attitudes. 

Impersonation 

Impersonation is the portraying of character. It is realistic 
and belongs to the actor's art, where the speaker has all the aid 
of stage accessories such as scenery, costumes, wigs, etc. The in- 
terpretative reader and the speech-maker should not impersonate. 
If they speak the words of another the meaning is often made 
clearer if impersonation is suggested. The inappropriateness of 
too much impersonation is brought out in the following incident: 
A student had a phrase in his oration, "In that day truth will 
light the fires of justice." As he spoke the words "will light the 
fires of justice," he scratched an imaginary match along his lifted 
trouser leg, much to the amusement of his audience. Yet, it some- 
times happens that the rendition of a word picture demands con- 
siderable realism; such is the case when Macbeth draws his sword 
to pierce the ghost of Banquo or when Ben Hur swings his huge 
whip over the backs of his steeds in the Chariot Race. Still, even 
then, it is not necessary to sheathe the sword or to lay down the 
whip. In impersonation, in dramatic action on the stage the stu- 
dent should carefully work out all the positions, movements and 
gestures of the character he is playing both while the character 



72 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

is speaking and while not speaking. Success in impersonation 
depends upon this ability of the student to present to the auditor's 
eye and ear a satisfying portrayal. 

The Speechmaker 's Position and Movement 

The best position for the speechmaker is body and head erect 
with the feet placed slightly apart at the heels and at an angle of 
about forty degrees. The feet should be so placed, one foot in 
advance of the other, that a line drawn lengthwise through the 
advanced foot will pass through the heel of the back foot. The 
body should stand easily in a positive attitude. No attempt should 
be made to throw the shoulders far back and the head so as to 
conform with the military posture unless the body by nature is 
that erect. On the other hand, neither the shoulders nor the head 
should be allowed to droop so as to weaken the posture and make 
it negative. The rule is not bad which directs one to stand erect, 
lifting up the chest, by imagining he is suspended from the ceiling 
by a cord attached to the upper chest. This conception at least 
will bring the chest up to an active and positive position and 
cause one properly to throw the weight of the body somewhat 
equally upon the heel and ball of the advanced foot and on the 
ball of the back foot. 

Unless the speaker possesses a very motive temperament and 
must express his thoughts by much action, the less a speaker moves 
before an audience, the better. Even some of our most dramatic 
speakers have been known to please an audience better by less 
movement than was the speaker's habit. It is quite safe to con- 
sider, at any rate, that the more thoughtful an audience is, the less 
action there will be necessary for a proper hearing. Stephen A. 
Douglas on the Western " Stump-speaking" tours might please his 
audience best by dramatically removing his heavy coat at the first 
climax of his speech, his lighter coat at the second, his waistcoat 
at the third, and his tie and collar at the closing climax of his 
harangue. But when he entered the halls of Congress and tried 
the same spectacularisms upon some of the thoughtful statesmen 
of the time he met with ridicule. The thought is the thing. Sub- 
ordinate all else. 

Gesture 

Gestures are movements of the arms and hands emphasizing 
the thought and emotion of the speaker. Every gesture should 



CO-ORDINATION 73 

possess three essential parts, namely, the Preparation, the Stroke, 
and the Return. Grace and ease of gesture should be cultivated. 

The Preparation is that part of the gesture in which the arm 
and hand are lifted from the side of the body to the position where 
the stroke is to be given upon the emphatic idea spoken. The prep- 
aration should begin with the movement of the elbow then the hand, 
with the arm slightly curved at the elbow. The hand should not 
be moved directly in the shortest line from the side of the body 
to the position of the stroke, but in an approach to an arc front- 
wards through what is called the ' ' Arc of the Preparation ' \ This 
instruction is not difficult to follow and with practice it will become 
entirely natural. 

The Stroke is that jerk or spring of the hand which is made as 
the emphatic idea is spoken. The Stroke is the climax of the ges- 
ture and should never be omitted. Omit the Preparation unless 
the stroke is to be given. There are no exceptions to this rule, 
except in gestures of a dramatic and descriptive nature and even 
then it is safe to say that the Stroke is given although it is timed 
slowly. 

The Return of the gesture refers merely to the returning of the 
hand and arm to the side of the body over the shortest line possible 
after the stroke has been made. The arm should of course not 
be jerked back into place, but it should be lowered quickly, grace- 
fully and easily, without attracting attention. 

The hand is the most expressive part of the gesture. There are 
five main shapes of the hand for gesture purposes. They are the 
Index, the Supine, the Prone, the Averse, and the Clenched hands. 

The Index hand is the most mental of all the gestures, it is dis- 
criminative and logical. The forefinger is extended while the other 
fingers are closed in subordinately, concealing the palm. 

The Supine hand is the open hand, palm upward, with the 
fingers gracefully curved to relieve what might seem stiff and 
straight fingers. This hand is particularly effective in declaration, 
assertion, affirmation, concession, welcome, submission, asking, giv- 
ing, etc. 

The Prone hand is the Supine hand reversed. The palm is down- 
wards. It suggests reproof, restraint, protection, location, sup- 
pression, blessing, beneficence, etc. 

The Averse hand is similar to the Supine or Prone, except that 
the palm of the hand is toward the audience. This position of the 



74 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

hand is expressive of aversion, horror, fear, repulsion, loathing, 
admonition, reproof, denial, rejection, amazement, surprise, etc. 

In the Clenched hand the fingers are drawn into the hollow of the 
palm and held in a gripped manner. The fist is clenched for phys- 
ical combat. This hand shape is expressive of intense emotion, 
passion such as rage, defiance, hate, revenge, determination, strong 
conviction, etc. 

All other hands are more or less made up of the above five main 
shapes. The Index gesture, of course, is never made with but the 
one hand, generally the right. But all other gestures may be 
doubled, that is, made with both hands and arms. The sweep of 
the gesture, generally, should be confined to the region around the 
height of the chest and shoulders; but it may extend as high, as 
low, or as far outward, as the hand can be extended without de- 
stroying the poise of the body. 

Oral Interpretation — Reading 

The public reader, the entertainer, the speaker, the actor, the 
teacher of literature and others are called upon to transfer to audi- 
tors the emotions and thoughts of the printed page by means of 
the spoken word. An ability to clothe the lines with life — an 
ability to see, through the words, the facts, scenes and feelings 
which give rise to the author's thoughts in the first place, — this 
is the prime requisite of an effective reader. Interpretation is the 
communicating of this appreciation to another mind. By inter- 
pretation we mean the art of conveying, naturally, another's 
thoughts and emotions to auditors by the reader's appeal to his 
own imagination and experiences. 

We "live, move and have our being" in emotional life. By its 
estimates we rate, ultimately, most of the facts of life. The scholar 
searches for facts and knowledge that will contribute to the pleas- 
ureableness of mankind. The scientist and inventor labor to yield 
to the people of their generation less irksome living. The lawyers 
and judges endeavor to quell the ill feeling's between litigants and 
thus to establish a degree of felicity. The statesman, the warrior, 
the doctor, the minister, the merchant all utilize their abilities in 
the attempt to satisfy demands which in the ultimate appeal are 
to the emotional life. 



CO-ORDINATION 75 

Consequently, no one who proposes to interpret the thoughts of 
literature to an auditor dares hope for success until his own emo- 
tional nature has been developed to a high degree of responsiveness. 

By emotional appreciation is not meant sentimentalism. Nothing 
so combats the effectiveness of an interpreter of literature before 
an auditor as when the interpreter gives way to his own emotions. 
The reader's task is so to interpret the thoughts and emotions of 
others that he transfers his appreciation to his audience ; but unless 
he holds himself under perfect control, he will call forth only pity 
and sympathy for himself, and thus defeat his purpose. 

The problem, then, of the interpreter is so to impart thought 
and mood to the audience that the auditors will catch the emotion 
which dominated the author of the selection. The interpreter, as 
the word implies, is a middle man translating the feeling of an 
author from symbols on the pages to the hearers. The ability to 
catch quickly and accurately the emotions and thoughts of the 
author and so to translate them to an audience that those who hear 
will experience the author's feelings is a pearl of great price to be 
sought after and to be acquired, not by payment of money, but by 
devotion to this ideal and purpose. 

A word of caution that is always timely should be emphasized 
here. We are apt to make our ideals the interpretations of some 
great reader or speaker, or possibly accept as the best renditions, 
those of an instructor. Such is all very good and we may feel 
gratified if we can ever approach the interpretative abilities of 
some of our present day artists. But their methods and renditions 
should never be imitated. Each one should think out the thoughts 
and feelings of literature for himself and make all interpretations 
relative to the facts and emotions of his own experience. It is 
so easy to imitate the intonations, inflections and mannerisms of an 
artist who has moved us, but how subtle a foe it is to our own 
possibilities of influence! 

By the definition of interpretation it becomes necessary for us 
to relate as far as is possible all of an author's meanings to our 
own experiences. By this means only can we appreciate them 
ourselves to say nothing of interpreting them to the minds of 
others. It stands to reason we have not had the identical experi- 
ences of the author when he wrote, so how can we approximate 
them? When Longfellow wrote "The Day is Done", he saw the 



76 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

darkness of evening falling over the landscipe with the descending 
mist of rain. As the lights began to peer out from the cottage 
windows in the village, he felt the mood of the evening, 

' ' And a feeling of sadness comes o 'er me 
That my soul cannot resist. 

A feeling of sadness and longing that is not akin to pain 
And resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles rain. ' ' 

We can interpret this poem by "vicarious experience." This 
principle refers to the experience of the thought and emotion of 
another through the substitution in our own imagination of thoughts 
and emotions as nearly identical with those of the author as possi- 
ble. In other words, by "Vicarious Experience" we mean imagin- 
ing what the author saw, heard, perceived, thought and felt when 
he constructed the lines. To be more concrete; suppose we desire 
to interpret "The Day is Done". One prime requisite is necessary. 
We must possess powers of imagination. These powers may be 
built up by exercise, but we must possess the faculty. We must 
frame the pictured thoughts of the author in the mind's eye. In 
building up the picture in the mind's eye this psychological prin- 
ciple must be borne in mind that we cannot imagine anything 
except as we have experienced it. The imagination always builds 
its picture by putting together parts which the mind's eye has per- 
ceived at one time or another. That which has never been seen nor 
experienced cannot be imagined. No one of us has ever been on 
the planet Mars nor in the Paradise which we term Heaven. If 
we try to imagine these places we build the picture from that which 
we have experienced. We think of the people of Mars, if the planet 
is inhabited, as of flesh and blood. We say Heaven has streets 
paved with gold. Likewise if we are to interpret Longfellow's 
poem, we must imagine as nearly as possible what Longfellow ex- 
perienced while he wrote the poem by appealing to what we have 
seen, heard and thought. We substitute our own mental image 
for the author's and we succeed in so far as we are able to imagine 
the identical mental image of the author. It would aid us greatly 
if we could look through the same window upon an evening very 
similar to that described in the poem and see for ourselves the 
lights of the village. But most of us have had similar views, so 
we can imagine the scene quite readily. Then we recall the mood 
we felt on those occasions, a mood approximating that described 



CO-ORDINATION 77 

by Longfellow. And as we request the reading of "some humbler" 
poet, the mind must react to the exhilaration it has experienced 
from the reading of the simpler poetry in distinction with "the 
strains of martial music" from "the bards sublime whose distant 
footsteps echo through the corridors of time." Similarly, by means 
of the principle of "vicarious experience" we interpret the closing 
verses, 

' ' And the night shall be filled with music, 
And the cares that infest the day, 
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs 
And silently steal away. ' ' 

The principle of vicarious experience has nothing to do with the 
voice nor with expression. It provides the method whereby the 
reader prepares himself, his mind, for expression. Oftentimes, 
especially among beginners, too little attention is given to this 
preliminary mental preparation, which is equally essential with ex- 
pression itself to success in the art of interpretation. 

Dramatic Interpretation 

Amateur productions of the drama are becoming quite popular among both 
younger and older folk. Almost every high school, college and city has its 
annual dramatic activities. The exercise is educational and worthy of encour- 
agement. The principles of dramatic interpretation are the same as for read- 
ing except the actor makes all possible use of stage accessories, special lights, 
and the emotional stimuli of music, rain and thunder imitations, etc. The 
actor must impersonate and interpret the character he plays. 

The following routine is offered as a logical and much used schedule for 
coaching a play: 

1. Selection of the cast. 

2. A reading of the whole play with all players present. 

3. Kehearsal of the parts working out the "business" or stage directions 
for each player all the time he or she is before the audience. 

4. Rehearsal of the play complying with the stage directions, with all cues 
and lines thoroughly memorized. 

5. Rehearsal of the play with special attention upon the proper interpreta- 
tion of the thought and emotion of the lines. 

6. Dress rehearsal. 

7. The production of the play on the date advertised. 

ASSIGNMENTS 

1. What is meant by "coordinating thought with voice and action"? Give 
examples of coordination in activities other than speaking. 



78 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

2. What is the difference between speaking conversationally and unconver- 
sationally ? 

3. How does voice convey 

a. meaning, and 

b. emotion? 

4. How does action convey thought and emotion? 

5. How do the Forms of Emphasis differ? 

6. What is ' ' good posture, position and movement ' ' before an audience ? 

7. What is the purpose of gesture; what are the kinds of gestures, and 
what idea or feeling does each communicate? 

8. Should the reader, or the actor, impersonate? 

9. Define ''interpretation", as an oral art. 

10. What is meant by ' ' vicarious experience ' ' ? 

11. Which members of the class speak most conversationally, or least so? 

12. Note as you listen to speakers the relative influence that they have 
upon you according as they are conversational or uneonversational. 

13. Let the class devote a few recitations to the reading of selections the 
purpose of which is conversational expression. 

14. Bead the following aloud, giving special attention to conveying meaning 
by the forms of emphasis. 

a. Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, 
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, 
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, 

Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, 
Pointing tails and pricking whiskers, 

Families by tens and dozens, 
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives — 
Followed the Piper for their lives. 

— Browning. 

b. Collecting, projecting, receding, and speeding, and shocking and rocking, 
and darting and parting, and threading and spreading, and whizzing and 
hissing, and dripping and skipping, and hitting and splitting, and shining and 
twining, and rattling and battling, and shaking and quaking, and pouring and 
roaring, and waving and raving, and tossing and crossing, and flowing and 
going, and running and stunning, and foaming and roaming, and dinning and 
spinning, and dropping and hopping, and working and jerking, and gurgling 
and struggling, and heaving and cleaving, and moaning and groaning. — 
Southey. 

15. Bead aloud the following 

Tone Quality Drills 

Welcome : 

1. How do you do, I am so glad to see you. Will you sit down? 

2. Come here, you darling little child! 



CO-ORDINATION 



79 



3. Oh, here you are. I have been expecting you for an hour. Come right in!. 
Gayety : 

1. Hurrah for the team, rah! rah! rah! rah! 

2. "Now glory to the Lord of Hosts from whom all glories are, 

And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre ! ' ' 

3. "I chatter, chatter as I flow to join the brimming river." 
Anger : 

1. If you say that again I will strike you. 

2. "How like a fawning publican he looks. 

I hate him for he is a Christian ! ' ' 

3. You must pay the penalty now! 
Grief : 

1. This is unbearable, how can I endure it? 

2. "I would my tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in me. ' ' 

3. My school chum and friend of many years passed away today. 
Eeverence and Admiration: 

1. What a magnificent sight is Niagara Falls! 

2. "Oh beautiful, awful summer's day, 

What hast thou given, what taken away ! ' ' 

3. "K-oll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll." 

16. Let the student form for himself Tone Quality Drills for practice in 
expressing the following moods and emotions. This list may be extended 
indefinitely. 1 



Hope 

Fear 

Disgust 

Courage 

Love 

Melancholy 

Remorse 

Pity 

Solemnity 

Defiance 

Advice 

Affection 

Appeal 



Awe 

Boldness 

Confusion 

Contempt 

Cunning 

Condemnation 

Command 

Challenge 

Calmness 

Despair 

Determination 

Frankness 

Exultation 



Excitement 

Explanation 

Encouragement 

Geniality 

Gloom 

Gasping 

Horror 

Hatred 

Indifference 

Interrogation 

Joy 

Moaning 

Modesty 



Parenthesis 

Ridicule 

Uproar 

Warning 

Dissension 

Aspiration 

Indignation 

Irony 

Sarcasm 

Woe 

Agitation 



17. Let the class read certain selections assigned by the instructor and dis- 
cuss the use of gesture in communicating the thought and emotion of the 
selections ; also, the kinds of gesture that may be used in this interpretation. 

18. Let the class discuss the subject of gesture in speaking, upon a basis 
somewhat as follows, — 

a. Is more or less gesture advisable as a rule? 

b. Do some persons gesture more than others? Why? 

c. What gestures do you use mostly? 

d. Are there gestures used by others that you particularly dislike? 

e. What is meant by ' ' realism ' ' in gesture ? 



1 Compare with Tone Drills of A. E. Phillips ' Natural Drills in Expression.. 



Chapter V 
ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 

Definition. Oral language is made up of speech sounds ordi- 
narily called vowels and consonants. The basis of this classification 
is made upon the time element adjustment of vocal organs in 
making the sound. A vowel sound may be prolonged while a conso- 
nant must be uttered more or less instantaneously, because the 
sound of the consonant must be momentarily obstructed by the 
organs of articulation. Professor D. C. Miller defines vowels as, 
"speech sounds which can be continuously intoned, separated from 
the combinations and noises by which they are made into words." 1 

Bell says, "The vowels are the material of speech and the artic- 
ulations (consonants) are the joints or hinges by whose motion 
the vowels are separated from each other and are affected in their 
duration." 2 

The consonants then may be thought of as obstructed sounds or 
noises and vowels as unobstructed, musical tones. 

Articulation refers to the joining distinctly of the proper speech 
sounds of a consonant and a vowel, or " a connected series of sounds 
made by the alternation of consonants and vowels." 3 Also artic- 
ulation is sometimes used as referring to sounding of consonants 
and enunciation to the sounding of vowels. 

Syllabication is the separating of words into syllables for the pur- 
pose of facilitating articulation. 

Accent is the stressing with the voice a particular syllable in 
a word. 

Correct pronunciation is the utterance of the speech sounds of a 
word with proper oral values, syllabication, and accent. 4 

Correct Pronunciation Desirable. In the earlier discussions of 
this hand-book the fact has been emphasized that we speak to 



i The Science of Musical Sounds, p. 217. 

2 Alexander M. Bell, Principles of Speech and Dictionary of Sounds, p. 14. 

3 Standard Dictionary. 

* Norlie, Principles of Expressive Beading, p. 175; footnote 71. 

To the instructor: The subject of pronunciation is much overlooked in our 
educational system, possibly unnecessarily so. At least, the writer believes it 
demands a prominent place in any introductory course in spealing. It is 
hoped tliat ample material has been presented in this chapter for thorough 
drill in this subject and that the presentation has been neither pedantic, arbi- 
trary nor superficial. 

80 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 81 

convey ideas. Let this point receive additional emphasis here, for 
it bears relationship with articulation and pronunciation. If you 
are to convey an idea to an auditor by means of speech you must 
use symbols intelligible to him. In the main these symbols are 
words which are made up of vowel and consonant sounds. The giv- 
ing of a vowel the wrong oral value will often change the idea 
entirely. If, as is often the case, the vowel in the word "ten" is 
given the "short i" sound, we get the word "tin", which is, of 
course, another word. But there are also pronunciations in which 
this same error does not give us a new word, such as when "men" 
is pronounced "min". In this case, the auditor is compelled to 
refer to the context to guess what the speaker refers to. Such 
extra effort on the part of the auditor mitigates against ease of 
attention and renders the speaker more difficult to listen to. The 
sounding of the speech elements of a word correctly is therefore 
a matter of efficiency in speech which is of value for the speaker, 
whether orator, conversationalist, salesman, etc. 

Again, incorrect articulation of consonants, especially final con- 
sonants, handicaps the listener and causes him to be obliged to 
appeal to the speaker's context to get the thought. If the "z" 
sound of the word ' ' fears ' ' is not given full quality another word 
results, i. e., "fierce". 

So that we may establish a principle of articulation and pro- 
nunciation of a dual nature ; 

1. The speaker must know the speech sound of the word he 
utters. 

2. He must then be able to speak these sounds correctly. 
The ability to accomplish these two necessary features demands, 

a. A study of vowel and consonant qualities, and 

b. Drill or training in the utterance of these sounds singly 
and in word combinations. 

Furthermore, there is a strong demand to-day in the business 
world for correct articulation and pronunciation as an asset to one's 
personality. Not only are many of our large department stores 
in the cities giving attention to the speech of employees, but many 
firms who send out salesmen or other representatives of the "house" 
require a certain standard of excellence along this line. In the 
nation as a whole, there is a growing demand for a better enuncia- 
tion of the mother tongue. "Better Speech Weeks" and the Amer- 
ican Speech movement are indicative of this fact. 



82 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Hearing Sounds: — Success in acquiring correctness of pronuncia- 
tion depends upon the ability to develop skill in hearing the sounds 
of vowels and consonants. It is necessary for us to build auditory 
images of each. When we hear a sound we relate it to our image. 
If our image is relatively right, we say the word is properly pro- 
nounced. In speaking we must hear the sounds somewhat as they 
are spoken and speak them so that they correspond with our images 
of correctness. We must develop the habit of hearing words in 
conversation and of judging of their proper articulation just as 
we develop the habit of seeing words upon the printed page and 
of recognizing their proper spelling. 

Standards of Pronunciation: — One of the first questions that 
comes to the student's mind refers to the lack of standard which 
seems to exist for authoritative pronunciation. Dictionaries as well 
-as cultivated speakers do not pronounce alike. Speech sounds vary 
in different parts of the United States and what was acceptable 
yesterday, we find rejected to-day. We may well ask, ''Can a 
standard be set among these many differences?" 

These differences in pronunciation are not so objectionable and 
radical as might seem apparent. Why are there so many pronun- 
ciations ? Why do the English speaking people not accept a definite 
sound for the vowel and consonant in every word and let the matter 
be closed ? There are three chief reasons why such a happy solution 
is not feasible. 

First. The speech organs of individuals are not alike, and never 
will be alike. Although the parts of the organs function similarly, 
anyone who has observed voices is aware that there is a widely 
divergent enunciation. With some individuals the vocal cords are 
heavy and long, with others thin and small. Larynges differ in 
size. Mouth cavities vary in shape considerably. Tongues are not 
alike. In some individuals teeth protrude and are large; in others 
they are small and well covered by the lips. From these varying 
organs of speech, then, we cannot expect exactly the same sound 
for each vowel and consonant. 

Second. Because of this fact and because people living in one 
part of the country tend to develop dialects or slight variations in 
the pronunciation of a language, we have what we call provincial- 
isms. We can recognize the far Western American by his speech 
when compared with the Southerner, or the Easterner. It is neither 
possible nor desirable to obliterate these oral traits. 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 83 

Professor Krapp, of Columbia University, says, "Whether one 
thinks this should or should not be so, it is a fact that most culti- 
vated persons in America nowadays, and an increasing number in 
England, are more or less self-conscious about their speech. The 
present very general interest in the practical applications of the 
science of phonetics is one of the proofs of the truth of this state- 
ment. With our strange mingling of races, our widely separated 
but rapidly inter-communicating local units of population, our 
constantly shifting social boundaries between class and class, it is 
inevitable that, in America at least, such should be the case. ' ' 

America has welcomed to her shores the peoples of the world. 
There exist communities where English is not spoken to any marked 
degree ; especially in our large cities do we have little Italys, little 
Bohemias, little Polands, etc. One of the outstanding results, in 
America, of the great war has been an increased emphasis upon 
the Mother Tongue. One of the ways in which a greater unity can 
be given America lies through the use of English. This calls for a 
correct speech. To quote Professor Krapp again, "The universal 
possession of all persons in the land, the rich and the poor, the 
learned and the unlearned, of farmer, artisan, laborer and mer- 
chant, speech is not only the great social solvent which makes the 
nation one, but also the readiest test by which such differences as 
exist are measured and known." Language is a living thing, 
expressive of our thoughts and emotions ; and it should not be held 
in too rigid a mould. 

Third. Language is in a state of constant change. The history 
of any language shows that it was related in some period closely 
to another language. The meanings of words and root forms dem- 
onstrate this. Words in changing from the Indo-European or in 
passing from one branch of this family to another have changed 
certain consonants. Grimm's Law, for instance, refers to such 
sounds as the "p" of Greek and Latin that has become "f" in 
English. This change, of course, occurs over a wide range of years. 
Even English has changed, in the last few centuries. The English- 
man of Chaucer's day would find difficulty in understanding our 
pronunciation, nevertheless there is a fundamental similarity be- 
tween the pronunciation of our era and his. The standard is, 
therefore, constantly undergoing changes. But for any given period 
in the development of a language, the standard is termed "the 



84 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

actual usage". The change which a language experiences is slight 
in periods of time separated only by a generation or two. The 
pronunciations of different locations are not so extreme as to make 
it difficult for the careful student of the spoken word to distinguish 
them, and to approximate a so-called accepted standard. This task 
of defining the "Actual Current Usage" is assumed by specialists 
in the field of pronunciation and their work is utilized by the 
publishers of our dictionaries. 

But even the dictionaries do not agree among themselves, and 
later editions of the same dictionary accept pronunciations not 
listed in former editions; further evidence of the state of constant 
change in language. One should not, in fact can not, be dogmatic 
about pronunciation any more than he can be about qualities of 
style, in written composition. However, one should not consider 
the status of pronunciation hopeless. It is quite possible for one to 
approximate a standard for himself. It need not compty in every 
detail with the standards of every other person, except in the main 
with those in the locality where one receives his early training and 
education, provided, of course, that such a standard is in keeping 
with the better traditions of pronunciation of English. There are 
two extremes possible in pronunciation, both of which a satis- 
factory standard should avoid. One is gross mispronunciation, such 
as substituting for a vowel or consonant sound one that the letter 
or letters could not possibly have; for instance, pronouncing "men" 
as "min", or putting in sounds traditionally not belonging to the 
word, such as ' ' warsh ' ' for ' ' wash " ; or leaving out syllables tradi- 
tionally included in the words, such as "speakin' " for "speaking", 
and "gover'mut" for "government". The other is overniceness 
where the speaker goes to the other extreme in trying to give the 
proper quality to vowels especially, such as "awsk" for "ask", etc. 
Slight variations in the sounding of vowel qualities are to be ex- 
pected because of the great variety of voice resonance chambers 
people possess. If you are a scholar in phonetics, its history and 
development, you can build your own standard upon the basis of 
your knowledge. Otherwise, it is safer and more advisable to 
follow what is rather widely accepted as the work of scholars, the 
dictionary. Own a copy of some standard dictionary, and follow 
it, except where you can justify before scholars your departure. 

There is a charm to the trained ear in listening to the melody of 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 85 

the speech of one who gives the proper sounds and accents to his 
words; and once this habit of listening to and distinguishing be- 
tween speech values has been cultivated, incorrect pronunciation, 
will be assigned to a place among other vulgarisms. 

The readiest way to develop accuracy in pronunciation is to 
develop the "dictionary habit". Learn at least one acceptable 
pronunciation. Where two or three pronunciations are permissi- 
ble, the student should select the one to him most desirable and 
easy to remember, unless he can keep the others in mind. The 
proper pronunciation of English is a habit worthy of cultivation : 
it is a cultural duty. If difficulty is experienced retaining pronun- 
ciation, a "pronunciation book" should be kept and the difficult 
words correctly recorded therein. To overcome habits of mispro- 
nunciation, many have found the custom of pronouncing a word 
aloud correctly five times to be a valuable aid in developing accu- 
racy: by this exercise the correct auditory image of the word's 
sound is intensified. 

Dual Pronunciation Problem,: — The subject of pronunciation may 
be summarized as a problem of two factors. First, it is a subjective 
problem ; a problem for the mind of the individual. He must de- 
velop a knowledge of the correct pronunciation from all sources 
available. This knowledge must be augmented by a definite mental 
image of the sound, auditory in nature. He must hear it pro- 
nounced by his own voice. An individual must develop a standard 
of pronunciation for himself based upon good authority; he must 
then develop habits of distinct articulation so as to be heard and 
understood by the auditor. Secondly: there is an objective feature 
to the problem. Not only must an individual be aware of the pro- 
nunciation for himself, but he must think of how the pronunciation 
will sound to one hearing him. Will the auditor's ear get the 
same sound? Are the auditor's images of pronunciation similar 
or identical to the speaker's own? We must avoid peculiar pro- 
nunciations for the sake of the auditor to whom they may not be 
familiar. 

VOWEL SOUNDS 

Voivel Formations — Vowel sound formation is a matter of reso- 
nance. The oral chambers are shaped differently for each of the 
so-called vowels. Reference to figures 1, 2, 3, from Webster will 



86 



THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 



make the point clearer. Vowels are formed in three extreme reso- 
nances. In the sound of "e" as in "meet" the chief resonance is 
centered about the front part of the mouth just back of the teeth. 
In the sound of "oo" as in "roof" the lips are rounded, the back 
part of the tongue thrust forward, and the throat in the region of 
the pharynx enlarged. For the sound of " ah " as in " father ' ' the 
lower jaw must be dropped, the tongue relaxed on the floor of the 
mouth, and the throat opened moderately. All vowels occur in 
positions related to these three, main resonances. 

Sigh, eve. Low, care. s J^ Narrov>, 51d. Wide, ai 




VIEWS OF THE VOCAL ORGANS (THE RIGHT HALF) IN VOWEL 
RESONANCE POSITIONS i 
The positions are somewhat exaggerated. 
1 Hard Palate. 2 Soft Palate. 3-4 Back Wall of the Pharynx. 5 Tongue. 
6 Tongue, or Hyoid Bone. 7 Right Vocal Cord, below; right False Vocal Cord, 
above; both attached to the Thyroid Cartilage in front, and to the right 
Arytenoid Cartilage behind. 8 Fold, extended from the border of the right 
half of the Epiglottis in front to the right Arytenoid Cartilage behind; back 
of which is shown, in cross section, the Transverse Muscle that runs from the 
right to the left Arytenoid. 9 Cricoid Cartilage. 10 Windpipe. 11 Esoph- 
agus. C Place of Constriction. 

i From Webster's International Dictionary. Copyright by W. and C. Mer- 
riam Co. Used by permission. 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 



87 



The following are the cardinal vowel positions according to Web- 
ster's International Dictionary: 



THE CARDINAL VOWEL RESONANCE POSITIONS 



High 



Medium 



Low 





Front 


Mixed 


Bad: 


Narrow- 


e 


eve 




00 


food 


Wide 


i 


will 




00 


foot 


Narrow 


a 


ale 


e fern 





old 


Wide 


e 


men 


u up 


a 


art 


Narrow 


a 


care 


u turn 


6 


orb 


Wide 


a 


man 




5 


not 



Long and Short Vowel Sounds. The marking system of the 
vowel sounds differs in some instances as to long and short sounds. 
The Webster Dictionary considers the diphthong long a, as in the 
word ate. On the other hand, the "scientific marking" of the 
Standard Dictionary assumes the right attitude in rating the vowels 
as long and short which actually possess the longer or shorter 
sounds. The following table will set forth the preferable alignment 
of short and long sounds : 

LONG AND SHORT VOWEL SOUNDS 

(According to the Stantard Dictionary, Scientific Alphabet. See Vizetelly, 
Essentials of English Speech and Literature, Chap. 9.) 





Erroneous 




Correct 


Short 


Long 


Short 


Long 


a — artist ie 


a — art 


a — at 


a — ale 


a — at 


a — air 


e — met 


e — eve 


e — met 


e — prey 


i— it 


i — ice 


i— it 


i — marine 


o — not 


o — note 


o — poetic 


o — note 


u — put 


u — mute 


o — not 


o — nor 






u — put 


u — mood 






u — up 


n — urge 







CONSONANTS 

Consonants may be either subtonic or atonic ; that is, the sound 
of the consonant may be voiced or it may not be voiced. When the 
sound is voiced, the vocal cords are brought into full vibration; 



88 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

when aspirate or not voiced, the cords vibrate but little if any. 
The distinction is readily perceived if the fingers are placed against 
the larynx (touching the Adam's Apple) : sound "t", then sound 
" d* '. Note the vibration of the larynx on the voiced sound. 

As to formation, consonants may be labials, Unguals, or palatals, 
according to articulatory organ which functions greatest. If the 
lips function chiefly in the creation of the sound, it is termed 
labial ; if the tongue, lingual ; if the palate, palatal. 

Two consonants are said to be cognates when they are similarly 
formed but when one is voiced (subtonic), and the other is not 
voiced (atonic). The following table sets forth the relationship of 
the consonants. 

A nasal results when all the vocalized breath is passed through 
the nose. 

TABLE OF CONSONANTS 

YocaU or Subtonics Aspirates or Atonies Nasals 
B — bub P — pump M — man 



N — nun 



LABIALS 


V — vivid 


F— fife 




W — wide 


HW— what 




E — ride 


E — press 




L— like 


L — fl ame 




D— did 


T— titanic 


LLXGUALS 


J — jam 


CH — chime 




Z — zone 


S— so 




TH— then 


TH— thin 




ZH — azure 


SH — shine 




G— gag 


K— kick 


PALATALS 


Y— yet 


HY — human 

11 — how 



NG- 



STEPS IN ACQUIRING CORRECT ENUNCIATION 
AND ARTICULATION 

39. CONSTRUCT A CORRECT AUDITORY IMAGE OF EACH VOWEL. 

In order to develop the images of how vowels sound, they must 
be isolated one from the other and the resonance value of each 
determined and practiced. In the following table, Numerical List 
of Vowels, each vowel has been numbered, according to its sound. 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 89 

This table does not include the "half -long" sounds cited in Web- 
ster's International Dictionary. It is a table generally accepted 
by all students of vowel sounds as adequate for preliminary train- 
ing. Let the student sound each vowel alone, without any relation 
to other sounds, noting the position of the oral resonance chamber, 
the shape of the tongue, the distance between the teeth and the 
contour of the lips. For help, refer to diagrams, Figures 1, 2, 3. 
The sound of each vowel should be determined, not by the student 
alone, but by the student in conference with the instructor. If 
allowed to determine the sound alone, the student is apt to con- 
tinue in any habits of incorrectness he may possess; these may be 
discovered if the auditory images are developed under the super- 
vision of competent instruction. 

What shall be the student's attitude toward provincial enuncia- 
tion and articulation ? Shall he be allowed to retain his sound of 
"r" if he pronounces the word "idea-r"? or, if he pronounces the 
word "doubt" as "doot", shall he be corrected? But one answer 
can be given : provincialisms must be discarded, just as provincial- 
isms of grammar must be cast aside. Correctness should be the 
ideal of attainment; for, at best, there will be still considerable 
variation of pronunciation due to the variations that exist in the 
speech organs of individuals. 

BELL'S NUMERICAL LIST OF VOWELS 

Slightly adapted 

(See Principles of Speech) 

Vowel No. Vowel Practice Words 

1 e as in educe, expedient, bee. 

2 i as in impose, differ, verily. 

3 a as in mediate, ague, gay. 

4 short e as in embrace, embers, end. 
4x (long) a as in erewhile, vary, fair. 

5 a as in admire, admiral, act. 

6 a as in arouse, sofa, bath. 

7 a as in partake, pardon, papa. 
7-f-l i as in idea, mindful, sky. 

7 + 13 . ou as in however, doubtful, how. 

8 i as in herbaceous, martyr, sir. 

9 (short) u as in sw-pply, cudgel, cut. 
9x (long) u as in curtail, curtain, hurt. 

10 (short) o as in obtain, dogma, on. 



90 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

10-fl oi as in envoy, hoi], boy. 

11 o as in portray, afford, pour. 

12 o as in omit, motion, slow. 

13 (short) oo as in together, footman, should. 
13x (long) oo as in iss^e, ruthless, ooze. 

Isolate the Vowel Sounds of Words by Numbering Them. The 
next step for the student is the numbering of the sounds of vowels 
in words. Choose any passage from the selections listed in the 
back part of the book, numbering the vowel sounds after a pre- 
liminary exercise in numbering the sounds of the following passage. 

"In oral reading the chief additional ele- 
ment to be measured, besides speed, and com- 
prehension, is the correctness of the pro- 
nunciation. " — Starch, Educational Psychology. 

Practice Identical Vowel Sounds in Word Lists. In the next 
place, let the student train for accuracy of sound in word combina- 
tions. Refer, for instance, to the Numerical List of Vowels; in 
the right hand column are words illustrating the sounds of the 
different vowels. Repeat aloud these series, stressing the sound 
in italics. 

Consonants 

40. DEVELOP THE CORRECT AUDITORY IMAGE FOR EACH CON- 
SONANT. 

There is a wide range of consonant spelling combinations. These, 
however, may all be reduced satisfactorily for purposes of study 
to the sounds of the following table. 

BELL'S NUMEEICAL LIST OF CONSONANTS 

21 1c as in can, kill, account, character, neck, hough, lake, khan, lacquer, 

pique, Bacchic, quay, acquire, walk. 

22 g as in leg, egg, ghost, plague, blackguard. 

23 ng as in ink, handkerchief, song, tongue. 

24 h as in hue. 

25 e, i, j, u, y, as in few, duteous, osier, hallelujah, use, you, million. 

26 sh as in ocean, tension, nation, chaise, conscience, shape, omission, schedule, 

pshaw. 

27 j as in giraffe, rouge, leisure, abscission, transition, azure, jambeaux. 

28 r as in horrible. 

29 r as in race, rhubarb, mirror, myrrhine. 

30 I as in late, tale, all, kiln, island, thistle, seraglio. 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 91 

31 t as in at, late, thyme, cottage, debtor, indictment, yacht, ptarmigan, sight, 

phthisis, stopped. 

32 d as in bad, bade, add, bdellium, Buddhism, would. 

33 n as in dun, done, inn, Wednesday, sign, John, mnemonics, puisne, demesne, 

compter. 

34 s as in cell, ace, gas, scent, base, loss, psalm, britzska. 

35 z as in sacrifice (v.), Czarina, as, ease, discern, dishonor, scissors, zeal, 

biaze, buzz, Windsor, xystus. 

36 th as in eighth, thing, Matthew, apophthegm. 

37 th as in the, this, breathe. 

38 f as in leaf, safe, stiff, laugh, physique, sapphire, soften, half. 

39 v as in vain, save, of, nephew, rendezvous. 

40 wh as in what. 

41 w as in way, one, quick, persuade. 

42 p as in pay, tape, tippet, ophthalmia, hiccough, halfpenny. 

43 b as in crab, glebe, ebb, cupboard 

44 w as in aim, lamb, same, common, condemn, drachm, paradigm, palm, 

disme. 

(Combination Consonants) 
near the wharf where a floundering whale might wheel and whirl. 
22-15 gs as in exalt, legs, eggs. 
31-6 tch as in chair, watch, vermicelli. 
31-7 dj as in soldier, judgment, judge, gem, range, exaggerate, jay, sandwich. 

Isolate the Consonants by Numbering Them. Refer back to Prin- 
ciple No. ?. Number also the consonantal combinations of the 
passage there cited. Follow this by numbering the consonants in 
any passage taken from a selection in the back part of the book. 

Practice the Consonant Sounds. There are many charts avail- 
able of consonant groupings for drill. The instructor should furnish 
the class with a discussion of these. Or, the class may construct a 
drill chart of consonants for itself by (a) Arranging consonant 
sounds in groups so that each sound is repeated in succession four 
times; (b) Arranging word columns with four words for each 
sound. 

Apply the Skill Acquired by the Foregoing Steps in Oral Read- 
ing. This final step should provide a synthesis of the foregoing 
steps. Preferably selections for reading should be chosen at first 
on which attention may be given to sound alone ; the thought con- 
tent need be little more than nonsense. For this purpose, sentences 
of difficult sound combinations are often furnished. Such sentences 
(Peter Prangle, etc., It sufficeth us, etc.) permit of good drill; but 
they should be used for drill only, as such difficult and odd combi- 



92 



THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 



nations seldom appear in regular reading matter. In no case 
should the reading of such sentences end the training for correct 
articulation and enunciation. 

Lastly, the student should take up the reading of material in 
which the thought is important and train to coordinate correct 
articulation and pronunciation with the other media of expression 
as he tries to communicate effectively the thought of the author. 

Methods for Attaining Correct Pronunciation 

1. Practice for mastery the vowel sounds in word columns. 

2. Practice for mastery the pronunciation of columns of words possessing 
difficult final combinations. 

3. Practice for mastery the pronunciation of columns of words possessing 
many syllables and difficult of articulation. 

4. Practice phonetic spelling. 

5. Consult the Dictionary always when in doubt. 

6. Develop the habit of observing the pronunciation of cultivated people, 
trained public speakers, actors and dramatic readers. 

Exercises in Articulation 

Correct and elegant pronunciation can be acquired only by faithful practice. 
The following exercises or similar exercises should be practiced often, daily if 
possible. Pronounce the words aloud, then in whisper; spell them phonetically 
and practice with them the inflection of pitch, force and time. 
1 eve sweet feel clique seek 





feet 


heed 


week 


weep 


chic 




meet 


theme 


deep 


keep 


queen 


2 


ill 


din 


lip 


bid 


hid 




fill 


pin 


sit 


did 


will 




sill 


whim 


quit 


quid 


mill 


3 


ale 


whale 


fete 


day 


same 




hale 


rate 


ace 


pay 


eight 




mail 


mate 


pace 


came 


late 


4 


men 


send 


steady 


measure 


genuine 




pen 


friends 


elk 


pleasure 


bell 




end 


ready 


hence 


general 


den 


5 


care 


hair 


pair 


parent 


stair 




bare 


lair 


prepare 


air 


dare 




fair 


aware 


chair 


rare 


declare 





man 


had 


carriage 


passion 


arid 




can 


marry 


caricature 


romance 


barbaric 




catch 


harass 


aquatic 


gamut 


character 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 



93 



7 


up 


fern 


ever 


wrge 


colonel 




cut 


dirge 


girl 


worm 


attorney 




hum 


verge 


first 


oppress 


official 




final 


seven 


utter 


connect 


murmwr 




financial 


gavel 


butter 


possess 


journal 


8. 


not 


forest 


wash 


foreign 


office 




hot 


torrid 


swan 


forehead 


orator 




was 


oratory 


morrow 


morals 


box 


9 


orb 


almost 


bald 


daughter 


awful 




or 


broad 


balk 


falchion 


laureate 




all 


fought 


because 


water 


quarter 


10 


art 


gaunt 


suave 


calf 


promenade 




aunt 


launch 


salve 


laugh 


Alabama 




calm 


taunt 


commandant 


daunt 


Nevada 




ask 


chant 


after 


advance 


pastor 




task 


class 


command 


grass 


pastime 




staff 


quaff 


advantage 


mast 


taskmaster 


11 


old 


hose 


court 


corporeal 


opponent 




cold 


foam 


hope 


history 


four 




bold 


coke 


corp3 


toward 


zoology 


12 


foot 


wolf 


stood 


full 


could 




look 


brook 


pull 


butcher 


would 




book 


good 


push 


bullion 


should 


13 


food 


moon 


truce 


prune 


rural 




root 


croup 


brute 


true 


smooth 




room 


rule 


gruel 


ooze 


ruin 



Difficult Final Combinations i 
Note: Articulate each consonant, then pronounce the word. 



Id — bold, hailed, tolled 
If — elf, wolf, gulf, sylph 
Ik — milk, silk, bulk, hulk 
lm — elm, helm, whelm, film 
lp — help, gulp, alp, scalp 
Is — falls, tells, toils, halls 
It— fault, melt, bolt, hilt 
lve — elve, delve, revolve 
md — maim'd, claim 'd, gloom 'd 
ras — streams, gleams, climes 
nd — land, band, and, hand 
ns — dens, runs, gains, gleans 



nk — bank, dank, sank, link 
nee — dance, glance, hence 
nt — ant, want, gaunt, point 
sm — chasm, schism, prism 
sp — asp, clasp, grasp 
st — vast, mast, lest 
ct — act, fact, reject 
pn — op'n, rip'n, weap'n 
kn — tak'n, wak'n, tok'n 
tn — bright 'n, tight 'n, whit 'n 
ble — able, Bible, double 
pie — ample, triple, topple 



i From Cumnock 's Choice Headings. 



94 



THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 



bl'd— troubl'd, bubbl'd, doubl'd 
d]'d— cradl'd, saddl'd, idl'd 
1st — call'st, heal'st, till'st 
nst — canst, runn'st, gain'st 
dst — midst, call 'dst, roll'dst 



rdst — heard 'st, guard 'st, reward 'st 
ngdst — wrong 'dst, throng 'dst 
nndst — arm 'dst, form .'dst 
rndst — learn'dst, scorn 'dst 



Words of Many Syllables i 



revolution 

institution 

lugubrious 

necessarily 

generally 

abominably 

absolutely 

accessory 

accurately 

agitated 

dishonorable 

collaterally 

apologetic 

dietetically 



apocalyptic 

coagulation 

antipathy 

apocrypha 

affability 

chronological 

assimilate 

acquiescence 

momentarily 

ambiguously 

atmospherical 

allegorical 

inexplicable 

constitution 



lucubration 

colloquially 

ecclesiastically 

authoritatively 

superiority 

incalculable 

indisputable 

immediately 

justificatory 

multiplication 

articulately 

disinterestedly 

adequately 

angularly 



innumerable 

intolerable 

annihilate 

apostatize 

appropriate 

indissolubly 

temporarily 

mythological 

congratulatory 

circumlocution 

disingenuousness 



Selections for Phonetic Spelling 
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, 
With stoutest wrists and loudest boasts, 
He thrust his fists against the posts 
And still insists he sees the ghosts. 

Amos Ames, the amiable aeronaut, aided in an aerial enterprise at the age 
of eighty -eight. 

Some shun sunshine. Do you shun sunshine? 

And the sun shall shine sooner or later. 

Pine white wine vinegar with veal. 

The honorable and reverend gentlemen. 

Bring a bit of buttered brown bran bread. 

Six thick thistle sticks. 

Lucy likes light literature. 

Eight gray geese in a green field grazing. 

It sufficeth us. Miserable interrogatory. 

She sells sea-shells. Shall Susan sell sea-shells? 

He sawed six, long, slim, sleek, slender saplings. 

Suddenly seaward swept the squall. 

He saw an old men roll railroad iron. 

Would 'st not play false and yet would 'st wrongly win. 

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. 



i Compare with a similar list in Cumnock's Choice Readings. 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 



95 



I fancy the first Frenchman fenced furiously. 

That whim led White Whitney to whittle, whistle, whisper, and whimper, 
near the wharf where a floundering whale might wheel and whirl. 

Swan swam over the sea. Swan swam back again. Well swam, swan. 

Sweet is the capture when the captive finds the captor a captive too. 

Zedekiah Zigzag was a zealous zoological zoophite in the frozen zone. 

Peter Prangle, the prickly prangly pear picker, picked three pecks of prickly 
prangly pears from the prickly prangly pear trees on the pleasant prairies. 

Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve full of 
unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb; 
now if Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve full 
of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his 
thumb, see that thou, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, thrust not 
three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb. Success to the success- 
ful thistle sifter! 

Words Frequently Mispronounced 

A word is marked correctly for pronunciation only when it is respelled and 
when 

a. All the vowels are marked, or numbered to signify definite sounds, 

b. The ambiguous consonants are marked, 

c. The primary accent is marked, and 

d. The word is separated into syllables. 

The student will find it a helpful practice for developing a sense for ' ' good 
pronunciation" to pronounce aloud from one to five of the following groups of 
words a day. When in doubt as to the better pronunciation, he should refer 
to an acceptable dictionary, or other authority. 

Note: For class drill in pronunciation, let the instructor assign a group of ten words 
to each member of the class in such a manner that all the words shall have been given 
out, during the period of the course devoted to pronunciation study. Let the instructor, 
then, take up in class from one to five groups of words a recitation, getting the preferred 
pronunciations from the student or students to whom the words were assigned. Supple- 
menting this study should be drill; let the class pronounce aloud, quietly but specifically, 
five groups of words each recitation after the preferred pronunciation has been selected. 
When the entire list has been covered, repeat the drill until the acceptable pronunciations 
are fixed. If the instructor so desires, append additional words to the following list, 
words selected by the class, omitting such groups of the following as seems to best meet 
the needs of the recitation. It will be found that the student will profit greatly by being 
assigned at least fifty (and not more than a hundred) words to be marked "correctly for 
pronunciation". 



1. aeroplane 


2. ally 


3. Acacia 


4. adobe 


arbitrament 


abattoir 


acclimate 


aeronaut 


acumen 


adept 


aerial 


again 


assiduity 


agape 


albumen 


alchemy 


attache 


atelier 


aspirant 


alien 


avoirdupois 


apparatus 


amenable 


alumni 


arid 


abdomen 


abjectly 


amoeba 


accouter 


acephalous 


acme 


aggrandize 


acoustics 


address (v) 


actor 


agrarian 


adagio 


address (n) 


area 


ague 



m 



THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 



5. advertisement 6. 


aeon 


7. animalcule 


8. arbutus 


aesthetics 


aforesaid 


ant 


archeology 


aid-de-camp 


aisle 


antipodes 


archangel 


alias 


alibi 


antique 


archbishop 


alma mater 


altercate 


any 


architect 


alumnae 


amateur 


aperture 


archipelago 


aquatic 


ameliorate 


aphorism 


archives 


allopathic 


anaemia 


apostle 


arctic 


almond 


anarchist 


aqueous 


aria 


alms 


angel 


arabesque 


aroma 


9. arsenic 10. 


atavism 


11. auxiliary 


12. a la mode 


artesian 


ate 


awry 


athletic 


artificer 


athlete 


aye (yes) 


Arabic 


artisan 


attacked 


aye (always) 


assiduous 


asbestos 


attribute (n) 


adjudicator 


automobile 


ask 


attribute (v) 


admirable 


aviation 


asked 


aunt 


ad valorem 


absent (v&n 


asphalt 


audacious 


adverse 


allege 


assignee 


agust (a) 


aerie 


amour 


asthma 


autopsy 


a la carte 


advance 


13. acquiesce 14. 


apparent 


15. banquet 


16. bade 


associate 


aviation 


barbarian 


business 


abject 


azure 


because 


breeches 


adult 


audacious 


bicycle 


bravo 


aggrandizement 


biography 


boisterous 


belles-lettres 


accurate 


blackguard 


bronchitis 


bellows 


annihilate 


buffet 


bizarre 


bestial 


allegiance 


bas-relief 


blessed 


brevet 


acrostic 


bouillon 


believe 


brooch 


alternate 


bureaucracy 


bona fide 


bouquet 


17. coquet 18. 


courtesy 


19. civilization 


20. dahlia 


concentrate 


corps 


clique 


deprivation 


chasten 


corpse 


creek 


depths 


ceramic 


courtiers 


canon 


dog 


chastisement 


candidate 


clematis 


desultory 


chiffonier 


chauffeur 


combatant 


diphtheria 


chivalrous 


column 


casualty 


despicable 


coadjutor 


comparable 


chalet 


dyspepsia 


connoisseur 


comptroller 


coiffure 


diamond 


contumely 


conduit 


chic 


decade 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 



97 



21. decayed 


22. economics 23. exquisite 24. 


fiancee 


dilemma 


either 


expert 


film 


docile 


ennui 


envelope (v & n) 


folio 


demonstrate 


extol 


endive 


fete 


demure 


eczema 


epoch 


fetish 


deaf 


extant 


exit 


fiery 


device 


eclat 


equipage 


fatigue 


devise 


entree 


evening 


finale 


different 


epitome 


extraordinary 


falcon 


demur 


ermine 


encore 


finance 


25. forehead 


26. gala 27. homogeneity 28. 


illustrate 


filial 


genealogy 


horizon 


imbecile 


formidable 


glacier 


hypocrisy 


irate 


frontier 


geyser 


heinous 


infantile 


gallows 


guardian 


harass 


isthmus 


gratis 


hilarity 


hiccough 


interesting- 


guarantee 


hydrangea 


homage 


insidious 


government 


handkerchief 


hoof 


inertia 


ghoul 


hospitable 


history 


idea 


gubernatorial 


heaven 


hypocrisy 


ignoble 


29. impious 


30. juvenal 31. lava 32. 


mezzo 


incognito 


javelin 


legend 


menu 


increment 


jocund 


leisure 


madame 


indissoluble 


judicature 


licorice 


majolica 


inquiry- 


khaki 


loath 


mardi gras 


insatiable 


kiln 


luxury 


marquis 


irony 


larynx 


lien 


massacre 


irrefutable 


laugh 


lenient 


mausoleum 


irrevocable 


lever 


lyonnaise 


memoir 


isolate 


literature 


lowering 


mercantile 


33. misanthrope 


34. naive ! 


55. orthoepy 36. 


paraffin 


mischievous 


nuptial 


onyx 


parent 


mirage 


new 


only 


pageant 


museum 


nonchalant 


oath 


predecessor 


miniature 


nausea 


orchid 


pretense 


moral 


neuralgia 


occult 


porcelain 


morale 


negligee 


opponent 


presumptuous 


massage 


orchestral 


overt 


personal 


muskmelon 


oleomargarine 


oracle 


personnel 


manor 


often 


ocean 


portiere 



98 



THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 



37. palmistry 


38. 


prelude 


39. prima facie 40. 


rabbi 


pecuniary 




program 


pumpkin 


reptile 


perfect (n & 


v) 


perspiration 


patriotism 


rout 


pianist 




pretty 


preface 


renunciation 


piquant 




patron 


presentiment 


rhythm 


placable 




patronage 


psalm 


recall 


placard 




precocity 


quinine 


research 


poignant 




protege 


qui vive 


romance 


prairie 




probity 


quickening 


really 


precedent (a & 


n) 


protestation 


query 


regime 


41. renaissance 


42. 


servile 


43. sagacious 44. 


sacrilegious 


rendezvous 




subpoena 


sergeant 


scion 


repartee 




soldier 


slough (mire) 


silhouette 


rise 




subtle 


solace 


squalid 


resources 




ski 


soot 


sinecure 


reveille 




suave 


squalor 


technique 


restaurant 




seckel 


sovereign 


tepid 


rheum 




sedan 


statistics 


trousseau 


recluse 




semester 


status 


tomato 


reconnoiter 




sacrifice (n & 


v) suite 


thyme 


45. theatre 


46. 


verbatim 


47. Arab 48. 


Bach 


trio 




vehemence 


Arkansas 


Beethoven 


tyrannical 




viscount 


Ave Maria 


Celt 


urbane 




vivacious 


Aeneid 


Chopin 


valet 




viva voce 


Alsace-Lorraine 


Calliope 


vase 




wash 


Amiens 


Caribbean 


viscount 




was 


Armada 


Corot 


version 




with 


Aryan 


Correggio 


viril 




wreath 


Aida 


Cavalleria 


vaudeville 




wistaria 


Buenos Aires 


Rusticana 


49. Don Juan 


50. 


Galileo 


51. Millet 52. 


Paderewski 


Dvorak 




Gloucester 


Mozart 


Renaissance 


Don Quixote 




Goethe 


Michael Angelo 


Rigoletto 


Des Moines 




Haydn 


Mont Blanc 


Roosevelt 


Elizabethan 




Hawaii 


Magna Charta 


Sahara 


Faneuil 




Himalaya 


Notre Dame 


Saint Louis 


Favorita 




Illinois 


Nevada 


Schubert 


Gallic 




Iowa 


New Orleans 


Tan nha user 


Gounod 




Italian 


Niagara 


Thais 


Joffre 




Los Angeles 


New Found land 


Trovatore 



ARTICULATION AND PRONUNCIATION 99 

ASSIGNMENTS 

1. What are the speech sounds of language called? 

2. Define articulation and enunciation. 

3. What is a satisfactory Standard of Pronunciation? What has been the 
basis of your own standard, up to the present time? 

4. What is the "dual pronunciation problem"? 

5. Keep a pronunciation book in which you record the pronunciation of 
words you wish to remember. Go over the words of this book once a week, 
pronouncing them aloud. 



Chapter VI 

THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 

The human voice is an instrument, — an instrument capable of 
communicating thought and the subtlest emotions. Slightest 
changes of pitch, inflection, or force convey meanings no musical 
instrument ever devised can equal. Whether it be the voice of the 
orator in impassioned appeal to the crowd or the humming melody 
of the mother lulling her baby to repose, it has power to express 
the gamut of thought and feeling, to bring pleasure, to inspire 
confidence, to convince and to move to action the minds of men. 
The facts of the science of voice can be learned in a relatively brief 
period of time, but the art of the use of the voice comes only after 
prolonged and patient training. Training of the vocal organs alone 
will not give power to the speaking voice, unless this training is 
combined with mental and spiritual development. Wealth of emo- 
tional experience and thought, maturity of mind and reflection, 
must be its associates. 

IMPROVE THE VOICE BY TRAINING 

The voices of individuals vary greatly. There are speaking 
voices of high pitch, of low pitch, narrow and wide range of pitch, 
of weak and strong intenshty, of pleasant and unpleasant quality 
or melody. The voices of some will yield to training more ; of 
others, less. None by taking thought or by training can improve 
the voice beyond its organic limitations any more than can a mature 
individual of short stature by exercise enlarge his proportions to 
those of a giant. But nature has provided no normal individual 
with a voice which cannot be improved by training. 

Let the class occupy a portion of a recitation in discussing the 
speaking voice along lines somewhat suggested by the following 
queries : 

a. Have you observed the wide range of variety among speaking 
voices? Is there any evidence of variety in the voices of the class 
as they respond to roll call? 

100 



THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 101 

b. Is the fact of variety a handicap to anyone? 

c. Is a good speaking voice a necessity? Is it an element of 
personality to be desired? Why? 

d. What is a good speaking voice? 

e. Of the members of the class who possess what to your mind 
are the best speaking voices, how many have had training either in 
speech or song? Of those whose voices are poorest, in your judg- 
ment, how many have trained ? Does there seem to be any relation- 
ship between the good voices you have observed in class, or outside 
of class, and training ? 

f. Can you classify your own voice? Do you think training 
would improve it ? 

g. List the defects of your own voice or that of a member of the 
class : can you suggest how to remove the defects ? 

h. Is the removal of all defects possible ? Desirable ? Is there 
a perfect voice ? 

i. Can you think of a person of your acquaintance whose voice 
has been improved by training? Whose voice has not been im- 
proved by training? Did the ability of the instructor have any- 
thing to do with this ? 

j. Do all good singers possess good speaking voices? Do good 
speaking voices possess merit in song? Is there a difference be- 
tween the speaking voice and the singing voice ? 

k. To what extent is a knowledge of the science of voice produc- 
tion necessary in training ? To what extent desirable ? 

KNOWLEDGE THE BASIS OF SPEECH TRAINING 

41. UNDERSTANDING THE PRINCIPLES OF TRAINING. 

In the foregoing discussions we have considered the desirability 
of knowledge in connection with training. Compare the outcome 
of your discussion in class on the subject with the following asser- 
tions. In order that we may enjoy a meal at the dinner table, it is 
not necessary that we possess the full knowledge of all the processes 
that go on in the assimilation of the food in the body, and we do 
not need to know the principles of physiology. Nevertheless, if the 
slightest disorder arises in the digestive system, or if there are ingre- 
dients in the food that bring about illness, we are unable satisfac- 
torily to diagnose our ailment. Then it becomes necessary to invite 



102 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

a specialist, one who not only knows the human organism, but the 
functions of the various organs. We summon a physician, one who 
possesses such knowledge. In order that a student may be a suc- 
cessful football player, it is not necessary that he understand how 
all the muscles of the body act and react, nor just how to take care 
of himself in case he is injured in a game. Instructors, trainers 
are provided for such purposes. Yet in the days of earlier football, 
when it was not possible to have such skilled attendants in the great 
game, the players were obliged to understand more how to take 
care of their injuries. Now, the trainer takes the responsibility of 
all these details. In speech training, it is not absolutely necessary 
for the student to understand very much about the principles of 
voice production ; he may follow the suggestion made by his in- 
structor and improve quite satisfactorily without much attention 
to the subject of anatomy or the physiology of the organs ; but the 
instructor must be a specialist in this field of information ; he must 
have a knowledge of the organs of speech and of how they function 
that he may be able to give you correct and adequate training. But 
the student of speech is unlike the athlete on the football team; 
throughout life he will not have a competent instructor under 
whom he is working at all times. Many of the great singers carry 
with them physicians who give correct advice in how to use the 
voice and when not to use it. The student, however, will, to a very 
large degree, have to become his own physician, his own trainer, 
his own instructor. In all the ordinary walks of life, speech is a 
secondary consideration to the thought content to be communicated. 
The student will find it highly profitable, therefore, to know the 
fundamental principles underlying the science of voice production 
in order that he may be his own adviser; and when in doubt, it will 
not be necessary for him to consult a specialist, except in case of 
serious difficulty. He can to a great degree determine what his 
ailments may be and how best to remove the defects. Furthermore, 
the organism producing voice works upon a rather mechanical 
basis, and the student will be able to speak more effectively, to 
make his voice yield more satisfactorily to his meanings, if he 
understands the principles under which the mechanism operates; 
just as the engineer, who understands thoroughly the construction 
of his own engine is able to get better speed and operation out of 
it upon the road, than an engineer to whom the locomotive is 
strange. 



THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 103 

USING THE VOICE AS AN INSTRUMENT 

The statement has been repeatedly made that the voice is an 
instrument; it is a musical instrument, the voice is far more ca- 
pable of producing melody and harmony than it is noise; only in 
its abnormal state, in which there are defects in the functioning 
of the organism, does the voice produce what may be termed noise. 
Is it not our problem, then, to try to discover under what conditions 
the voice produces its greatest melody? 

In Chapter I we learn that our attention is repelled by unpleas- 
ant objects, and that it is easier to affix attention upon pleasant 
things. This principle carries in the realm of sound. Unpleasant 
sounds cause us to stop our ears, to turn away our heads, to run; 
pleasant sounds invite our attention and bring us satisfaction. 
Audiences do not assemble to hear the clatter of wagons and street 
cars through the crowded street, but they assemble in large num- 
bers to hear the melody possible from a great symphony orchestra. 

Nature of Sounds. In considering the human voice as a tone 
or musical instrument, the first point of importance is the nature 
of sound itself. All considerations of sound according to the phys- 
icist viewpoint involve these factors. First, a sound source; sec- 
ond, a vibrating body ; third, which may not always be included 
except in the study of tone instruments, a resonating body. Sound 
is always the result of the vibration of something. In the violin, 
it is the string, in the human voice, the vocal cords. The sound 
stimulus is that which originates and continues the vibration and 
the resonator is that which increases the carrying power of the 
tone. Sound possesses, according to the physicist, pitch, intensity, 
and quality, timbre. Pitch refers to the highness or lowness of 
the tone and is based upon the number of vibrations per second. 
Intensity refers to the loudness or weakness of the sound, and is 
measured by the amplitude of the vibration. Quality or timbre 
is used to describe the character of a sound possessing over-tones. 
We recognize one tone as opposed to the other by its timbre, pitch 
and intensity. 

You may readily distinguish the piano from the violin note by 
the peculiar nature of the over-tones, or to be more explicit, by the 
quality or timbre of each instrument's sound. 

The psychologist gives somewhat different characteristics to 
sound. He characterizes sound by pitch or quality; timbre, in- 



104 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

tensity, time and volume or extensity. Professor Seashore 1 points 
out that just as color vision is a quality of the sense of sight, so 
pitch is a quality of tone determined by the sense of hearing. In- 
tensity refers to the loudness or weakness of a tone. Extensity 
refers to the bigness or smallness of a tone. The low notes of the 
pipe organ sound big. The high notes seem small in comparison. 

Sound is spoken of by the physicist as travelling in wave lengths. 
Really sound does not create waves in the atmosphere similar to 
the ripples of water. The particles of air are disturbed in a straight 
line between the vibrating body and the ear. In fact these vibra- 
tions radiate in all directions from the sound body. The wave 
curve is used because with it the characteristics of sound can best 
be illustrated for purpose of investigation and study. 

Let the student examine two instruments — a violin, and a cornet 
— and try to determine how the sound of each is made. Let us 
consider the violin first. How does the player bring forth the 
melodies possible from the violin? Some one suggests that the 
player pushes the bow across the strings of the instrument thus 
producing sound ; some one else will suggest that it is the vibrating 
string that produces the melody. Both are right, both activities 
are required, but let us separate the two conceptions or others that 
may be made as to how the sound is produced, by arranging these 
elements in successive steps. First, it is necessary for the player 
to bow the strings of the violin. Muscular activity is essential; 
the bow must be pushed across the string by the player ; there must 
be some generator or stimulator for the vibrating string. This push 
of the bow across the instrument thus generating the vibration may 
be termed the motor factor in sound production. Next, the string 
must be so arranged on the violin that it will vibrate; in other 
words, a vibrator is essential to the sound. But what is the box 
upon which the strings are mounted, what function does it serve? 
"Why not stretch the strings of the violin upon a piece of board or 
upon the wall of the room, or from the back of a chair to the seat? 
Because the laws of sound have taught us that the vibration may 
be augmented, enlarged, by a cavity of certain size and shape. The 
sound of the vibrating strings may be enriched by the cavity of 
the box when the cavity is located in a certain position, by what 
is called resonance. A resonator is an essential part to the pro- 



Psychology of Musical Talent. 



THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 105 

duction of sound on the violin. Then there are the finger move- 
ments made by the player upon the neck of the instrument, which 
do what ? — Alter the pitch of the notes. 

Thus the production of sound upon the violin accords with the 
laws of the physics of sound which are, that sound is produced by 
a vibrating substance called sound source; that there must be a 
stimulus to the vibrating body called the sound stimulator; that 
there may be amplification of the vibrations by a cavity of a size, 
depending upon the type of the vibration, called a resonator. Ob- 
servation of other musical instruments will disclose that all possess 
motor, vibrator and resonator. 

Now let us consider the cornet, how is this instrument played? 
How are the rich notes it issues forth produced? Let us examine 
the instrument carefully. What are the coils in the pipes for? 
They represent the resonator of the instrument and the size of the 
resonator is variable by means of keys located in the center of the 
instrument. But where is the vibrator? The lips of the player 
provide this. But what sets the vibrator into motion? "Where 
is the motor ? The chest of the player provides this. 

The voice instrument resembles, quite, the cornet. The chest 
provides the motor power for the vibrator, which is the vocal cords ; 
and instead of the resonator being the tubes of the cornet, it is the 
cavities of the head, — the throat (pharynx), the mouth, and the 
nose. 

VOICE PRODUCTION 

We are now ready to take up the consideration of the production 
of voice ; but before taking up the study in detail, let the following 
questions or similar subjects be the basis of your own reflection or 
of class discussion. It will present to all an interesting sidelight on 
the usual misconceptions of the vocal instrument. 

1. What is the size and shape of the chest? Where is its lowest 
extremity? Why do we breathe? How do we breathe? To what 
extent is the chest an empty cavity? 

2. What are the vocal cords ? How many are there ? What do 
they look like ? How do they function for tone ? Do they serve for 
any other purpose than for tone productions? 

3. How many cavities resonate the voice? Locate and describe 
three. What is a "cold"? 



106 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

THE MOTOR 

Distinguish Between Respiration for Health and for Speech. 
Breathe quietly for five or six times, then speak the following 
sentence : The pen is mightier than the sword. Do you notice any 
difference in the use of the breath in respiration normally followed 
and that used in speech? Breathing has two functions for the 
body, to supply sufficient air containing oxygen and to emit from 
the lungs carbon-dioxide, or waste matter from the lungs, — and to 
supply the vocal cords with a stimulus for vibration. Respiration 
involves two processes, — inhalation, in which the air is drawn into 
the chest, and exhalation, in which the air is expelled from the 
chest. In normal breathing when air is supplied the chest for 
purposes of health, the vocal cords are completely relaxed and lie 
back against the walls of the thyroid. 

A sound chest is not only an essential for health, but it is a 
requisite for effective voice. Plenty of exercise which will intro- 
duce into the chest, oxygen, fresh air, is of course to be recom- 
mended. This exercise of course must not be overdone. Have you 
ever experienced after taking deep breaths vigorously for several 
minutes, or after a brisk walk in the open on a cool morning, a 
sense of dizziness? This is the result of too much oxygen in the 
chest. Respiration for speech must be more rapid and possess 
greater vigor than that only for health. The breath in speech also 
provides fresh oxygen for the purposes of health by the inhalation 
and exhalations. When speaking continuously such as in public 
address, it is not advisable to attempt to supply the chest with air 
by inhalation through the nose ; rather let the air be gently inhaled 
through the mouth and taken in during the phrases spoken. For 
speech, the inhalation must be taken quickly and quietly. The 
exhalation is the chief factor in speech. One cannot well produce 
sound for speech with the inhaled breath except in the production 
of sound for certain emotional states. 

42. TRAIN FOR THE SKILLFUL CONTROL OF THE MUSCLES REG- 
ULATING THE SPEAKING BREATH. 

You probably have experienced the truth of this principle several 
times for yourself upon the athletic field. After vigorous yelling, 
have you noticed a soreness about the throat as well as loss of voice, 
hoarseness, etc. ? While there are other elements that enter in, the 



THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 107 

chief cause of this condition is an improper control of the breath. 
Have yon ever noticed the same sensation after a prolonged oral 
discussion of some topic ? If not, this may be tried out by selecting 
an oration such as Webster's Reply to Hayne, in the United States 
Senate, and by reading it with what you think to be a fitting emo- 
tional expression. Unless you properly control the breath in the 
enunciation of the words, you will soon find that the soreness in 
the throat will occur and that a general impairment of the tone will 
follow. 

43. UNDERSTAND HOW THE CHEST FUNCTIONS. 

The average student seems to possess little, if any, idea of how 
the air gets into the chest and of how it escapes, except that he 
knows there is a movement of the chest in respiration and that the 
air is inhaled or exhaled through the mouth or nose. The princi- 
ples involved in respiration are similar to those involved in filling 
a fountain pen filler with ink. In the latter, the bulb of the filler 
is pressed between the fingers to remove the air. The opening of 
the filler is dipped beneath the surface of the ink and the pressure 
of the fingers on the bulb removed. The bulb then assumes its 
original shape, creating a tendency toward a vacuum in the bulb. 
The pressure of the atmosphere forces the ink into the filler. As 
the pressure of the bulb is released, the ink "is sucked into the 
filler", we say. The chest is a cavity, the capacity of which can 
be varied, as the bulb of the filler. At the floor of the chest is a 
heavy muscle called the diaphragm. The ribs are embedded in 
muscles called the external and internal intercostals. The abdom- 
inal muscles form the exterior wall of the abdomen. All of these 
function in respiration. 

Before the details of breathing are discussed, two principles 
should be understood; first, the principle of antagonism among 
muscles, and second, the principles of reflex action. If you lift 
your right hand to the shoulder, will the same muscle return it to 
your side? No, there are two sets of muscles, one that lifts the 
hand, another that lowers it. The action of these muscles may be 
noted by placing the left hand about the right arm above the elbow 
as the right hand is lifted to and from the shoulder. Throughout 
the body muscles act against each other; that is, one muscle con- 
trols movement in one direction and another muscle controls the 



108 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

movement in the return direction. The two muscles act one against 
the other when, for instance, the arm is lifted but half way to the 
shoulder and is held suspended there. In breathing, the muscles 
act against each other thus establishing control. Secondly, we are 
not conscious of the process of normal respiration. Breathing con- 
tinues without our attention by reflex action. Let us carry the 
idea further ; habits of movement are the result of reflex action. A 
stenographer does not think which key is touched as each letter is 
formed. The operation of the machine is by automatic action. 
But there was a time when this was not the case. When beginning 
to use the typewriter, the stenographer found it necessary to learn 
the key board and to be conscious of each letter struck. Incorrect 
habits of breathing for speech may be removed by attending to 
correct habits. Soon, the correct habits become fixed actions, no 
longer needing attention. In speech all habits of breathing must be- 
come reflex. The speaker's attention is demanded for the expres- 
sion of his purpose, for his ideas. The proper breath for all tones 
should come automatically. 

Inhalation. The two main sets of muscles that function for in- 
halation are the diaphragm and the external intercostals. The 
latter lift the circular ribs thereby increasing the lateral capacity 
of the chest. The diaphragm, at the floor of the chest, resembles 
an inverted bowl, when relaxed, with the rounded portion of the 
bowl upwards. When the diaphragm contracts it flattens out with 
a downward movement pressing against the digestive organs, thus 
increasing the vertical capacity of the chest. This increasing of 
the capacity of the chest "pulls in" the air for the inhalation. 
During this process the muscles of exhalation are relaxed. 

Exhalation. The two main sets of muscles that function in ex- 
halation are the internal intercostals and abdominal muscles. How 
is the breath expelled from the chest? The internal intercostal 
muscles contract, pulling the ribs downward and together gently or 
forcefully, at will, while the external intercostals relax in antag- 
onism. Thus, the lateral capacity of the chest is decreased, forcing 
the air outward through the mouth and nose. Then, the abdominal 
muscles, at the same time, contract. They pull inward against the 
organs of digestion that have been pushed downward by the dia- 
phragm in the inhalation. The result is the crowding upwards 
against the diaphragm of the digestive organs, pushing the dia- 






THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 



109 



phragm back into its relaxed position and shape of the inverted 
bowl. The diaphragm acts in antagonism to the abdominal mus- 
cles, thus establishing equilibrium and control. 



A. 





Figure 4, The Chest 1 

A side view of the chest is given in Figure 4. In figure A, the 
capacity as shown by the shaded lines is smaller than B. Figure A 
shows the chest when deflated. Note the position and shape of the 
diaphragm in each figure, as well as the fact that the chest capacity 
is increased in B, both vertically and horizontally. 

Methods of Breathing. Generally considered, there may be three 
methods of breathing. The basis of making the classification rests 
on the muscle action that is accentuated. All breathing demands 
to a slight degree at least some action of all the muscles above de- 
scribed. But the air may be drawn into the chest by lifting the 
collar-bone or clavicle. Only a small amount of air may be thus 
inhaled. This is termed clavicular breathing. It is used by some 
speakers and singers when they desire to fill the chest to its utmost 
capacity; singers especially may be observed lifting the shoulders 
slightly on an inhalation. Then, there is a method in which the 
breath is introduced into the lower portion of the chest, mainly. 
This type may be noted by the expansion of the abdominal region, 
while there is none in the upper part of the chest. This is termed 
abdominal breathing and is quite common, especially among men. 
The third method accentuates the action of the intercostal muscles ; 
the ribs are raised and lowered with little support from either the 



i From Mills' Voice Production. Copyright by J. P. Lippincott and Co. 
Used by special permission. 



110 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

diaphragm and abdominal muscles or the clavicular. This is 
termed intercostal breathing; and it is quite common, especially 
among women. The best method of breathing for speech involves 
the entire expansion of the chest, especially by means of the inter- 
costals and the diaphragm. For effective breathing in speech, the 
necessity for the complete control of the muscles of respiration is 
now apparent. 

In connection with this study of how the chest functions, let the 
student follow the exercises for developing breath control suggested 
below; but also, let the student work out other drills based upon 
his personal needs. 

44. SPEAK WITH AN ADEQUATELY FILLED CHEST. 

If the function of the muscles of the chest, in speech, is to sup- 
ply and regulate the outflow of air for the production of tone, our 
next step is to determine to what extent the chest should be filled 
with air for speech. Let the student first express a sentence after 
having forced much of the air out of the lungs, then let the same 
sentence be repeated after the chest has been fully inflated. Again 
repeat the sentence with the chest filled with the quantity of air 
normally used in speech. The student will readily note the differ- 
ence in the type of speech produced by the different chest inflations. 
Let the student observe the members of the class as they speak; 
can you suggest any member who speaks with insufficient air in the 
chest? Let this observation be carried outside the classroom; it 
will be noted that there are many individuals who speak with an 
insufficient amount of air in the lungs. On the other hand, it is 
possible to fill the lungs too full for easy speech. "What is the 
guiding principle determining the amount of air that should be in 
the lungs for effective speech ? It is the conception that the chest 
muscles must act as a lever on the air of the chest forcing it out 
that gives us the best understanding of breath control. If there 
is little air in the lungs, little can be forced over the vocal cords for 
tone. If there is too much air in the chest for easy control, the air 
escapes too rapidly, producing a " breathy" tone. One cannot pry 
an automobile out of the mud with a twelve-inch rule. A long bar 
with the fulcrum near the wheel of the car gives "leverage". 
Similarly, there should be just enough air in the lungs to give the 
muscles of the chest the most adequate power of control. 



THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 111 

Tests carried on in the Speaking Voice Laboratory of the University of 
Iowa show that most individuals speak on a chest capacity of about fifty 
percent of the whole capacity, as measured by the spirometer. 

This is a measurement of averages. Those whom we might term the better 
speakers, however, it has been found, speak upon a chest capacity amounting to 
about seventy-five percent of the whole. Let the student experiment for himself 
to learn the cubic contents of his own speaking chest capacity. This may be 
determined in the laboratory or in the gymnasium; exhale the well filled chest 
of air into the spirometer five times, making an average of the measurements to 
determine the chest capacity as a whole. Then utter aloud two or three times 
the following sentence, — 

Might is not always right. 

Try to speak these words with abnormally filled chest such as you use regularly 
in talking. As soon as the sensation of normally speaking this sentence has 
been experienced, utter just the word, ''Might," and exhale the remaining 
portion of the breath into the spirometer. Try this five times, with the caution 
that you do not inflate the chest beyond that you normally use in speaking. 
The average may then be compared with that of the full chest capacity and the 
speaking chest capacity be determined. 

45. TRAIN FOR CONTROL OF THE THREE FORMS OF SPEECH 
EXHALATION. 

In order that we may observe the relationship between breathing 
and intonation let us combine the tone with exhaled breath. There 
are three types of exhalation prominent in speech. 

Effusive Exhalation 
Explosive Exhalation 
Expulsive Exhalation 

Effusive Exhalation. Let a member of the class coordinate the 
voice and breath in the utterance of a sentence denoting the emo- 
tion of 

Weariness 
Extreme caution 
Keverence 
Extreme deliberation 

Note, if you will, the specific type of exhalation used to communi- 
cate the thought and feeling of the above emotions. The breath 
is exhaled in a smooth-flowing stream with no abruptness or irreg- 
ularity. There is a continuousness necessary to the tone in the 



112 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

expression of the mood of awe, of reverence, etc. It would be 
impossible to express these moods so successfully by any other type 
of breathing. The type of breathing necessary to produce such a 
tone is termed, Effusive Exhalation. 

Explosive Exhalation. Again, let the student coordinate the 
breath and voice with the thought of a sentence denoting anger or 
extreme haste. Utter the following words with the characteristic 
vigor of the college yell: 

Rah! Rah! Rah! 

Or let the student give the military command, 

Halt! 

Would it be in keeping with the thought and emotion to give the 
college yell or military commands w T ith the Effusive type of breath- 
ing? It will be observed that the Explosive Exhalation is the 
opposite of the Effusive. In the Explosive the breath is emitted in 
short puffs. These create slight explosions of tone which may be 
indicative of certain moods or emotions. 

Expulsive Exhalation. Let a member of the class give directions 
as to how one may go from the class room to the city post office. 
Note the type of breathing used in giving this description. Con- 
trast this type of breathing with the other types already discussed. 
It will be observed that the Expulsive breath is a type somewhat 
midway between the extreme of the Explosive and the Effusive. 
It is the Expulsive type of breathing that we use in most of our 
conversation and public address. 

An absolute control of the muscles of the chest is essential to the 
effective use of these three forms of exhalation for speech. 

DEEP BREATHING EXERCISES 



1. (a) Stand erect, lift the hands slowly from the sides of the body front- 

wards high up over the head, inhaling the breath. Return the hands 
slowly to the sides exhaling. 

(b) Repeat, except lift and lower the hands sidewards in a line with the 
body. 

(c) Repeat, except when bringing the arms down exhale on one or more 

vowel sounds. 

2. Stand erect, inhale and exhale rapidly like the panting of a dog. This 
exercise is especially good for developing control of the diaphragm. 






THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 113 

3. (a) Inhale, hold a lighted match or candle as near the lips as possible, 
then exhale without extinguishing the flame, 
(b) repeat, exhaling with vowel sounds uttered explosively, or with a 
rah! rah! rah! 

B 

(From Curtis) 

Attention: Stand erect with arms hanging. 
Exercise I: 

1. Elevate chest by muscles alone; 2. Take a deep inspiration; 3. Say the 
alphabet as far and as many times as you can, without lowering the 
chest; 4. Expire; 5. Lower the chest and relax as in Attention. 
This exercise may be repeated until the alphabet can be said several times 
on one expiration. 
Exercise II: 

1. Elevate the chest; 2. Inspire; 3. Extend arms, thumbs up; 4. Tense 
arm muscles, cramping fingers; 5. Flex arms at elbow until fingers 
touch chest — repeat two to four times; 6. Attention; 7. Forced expira- 
tion ; 8. Lower the chest ; 9. * Rest. 
Exercise III: 

Same as in II, except thumbs are back, then arm is flexed upward, as in 
Fig. 2, continuing, the fingers are brought to the shoulders. Repeat two 
to four times. 
Exercise IV: 

Same as in II, except arms are hanging at sides, thumbs out, and the arm is 
flexed, bringing fingers to shoulders. The upper arm does not change its 
position in these exercises. 
Exercise V: 

Attention, same as in all, with elevation of chest and deep inspiration, then 
tense arm, leg, and body muscles. Thumbs together in front, palms 
toward floor. 1. Push down an imaginary resisting body, bending the 
back. 2. Little fingers together, palms up. Lift a heavy weight, all 
muscles in tension, until erect, then repeat once, then Exercise II, 6, 7, 
8, 9, as before. 
Exercise VI: 

Hands together at chest, body relaxed, thumbs touching. 1. Shoot arms up- 
ward, thumbs passing nose; separate and drop arms, back of hands tend- 
ing to come together at back, thumbs always backward. Come back to 
first position through the same arc. 2. Drop the hands, thumbs touching 
hips, then continuing upward, thumbs always pointing back, to a position 
as at start in Exercise III, except there is a complete rotation of the hand. 
Return to first position through the same arc and repeat in turn, increasing 
in rapidity. This exercise is done in relaxation. It is the best body 
gymnastic for the speaker or singer, as it develops the chest and back 
muscles, and tends to produce a good carriage of the body. This exercise 



114 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

should always conclude the tension exercise. The pupil, in cooling off, 
should stand erect with the shoulders back. The simple repetition of 
these exercises once or twice a day will suffice to keep the pupil in the 
most excellent physical condition. 

VIBRATOR 

In all sound there must be a vibrating body ; in the human voice 
this vibrating body is the two vocal cords. They are neatly pro- 
tected by the shield of the larynx which is sometimes termed the 
Adam's Apple. These two ligaments are attached to the shield 
all around its circumference, except in the middle where, like the 
diameter of a circle, the two edges of the cords are found. This 
opening between the two cords is called the glottis. It is through 
the glottis that the air passes in the production of voice, as well 
as in respiration. For the act of breathing, the muscles of the 
larynx pull the cords nearer the side walls of the shield; but for 
voice, the cords are brought so closely together that the edges 
almost touch. The pitch of the voice is varied by the muscles of 
larynx which stretch or relax these two edges of the cords; the 
greater the tension on the cords, the higher the pitch of the voice. 
In general, the intensity of the voice, that is, the degree of loudness 
of the tone, is determined by the passage of the breath through 
the glottis. The greater the force of the breath applied normally 
to the edges of the cords, the louder the tone. Of course, it must 
be understood that resonance also plays a part in controlling the 
intensity of the voice. (See footnote. 1 ) 

No attention should be given the vocal cords, aside from some 
training in controlling the pitch of the tone, the constancy of the 
tone and the intensity of the tone. 

46. TRAIN FOR CONTROL OF PITCH. 

Every voice has a range of pitch for speech that is more or less 



i It will be of interest and of value to the class if the teacher will provide for 
dissection of the larynx of a sheep or bullock. No attempt should be made to 
dissect out the muscles controlling the action of the cords; let the instructor 
merely remove the heavy muscles surrounding the larynx and then open the 
voice box by cutting a straight incision at the back part of the largest portion 
of the larynx, the thyroid. If care is taken not to cut deeper than is necessary 
to open the larynx, the vocal cords will be readily observed; and by moving up 
and down the anterior portion of the thyroid, the action involved in tensing the 
cords will be noticed. The main value of this experiment will be the knowledge 
of the nature of the cords; no student then can think of them as two 
"strings' '. 



THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 



115 



fixed by the nature of the speech organs. Some voices are naturally 
of low pitch, others of medium, and still others of high range of 




N. Nasal Passages 
H. Hard Palate 
S. Soft Palate 
Figure 5. Diagram Illustrating the Voice Instrument 
(From Brown and Behnke) 



pitch. One should not attempt to train his voice beyond its nat- 
ural limitations of range. A person with a high voice should not 



116 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

attempt to cultivate the same type of voice as one possessing a low 
voice. The musician recognizes this fact when he classifies voices 
as soprano, tenor, contralto, basso, etc. With special regard for 
variety of pitch, read some selections assigned. 

Train for Constancy of Pitch. Some voices have a tendency 
to ''break", that is, to suffer an interruption in the vibration of 
the vocal cords, in speech. Others fail to keep a definite pitch, 
when such is desirable. The difficulty may be with the hearing, 
the ear may not grasp the pitch; or, it may be in the muscles of 
the larynx: they may fail to hold the vocal cords with equal ten- 
sion. It may be, also, that there exists a defect in the vocal cords 
themselves. But generally considered, the difficulty is one of in- 
correct coordination of breath with tone : the muscles of the larynx 
do not hold the tension of the cords constant as the pressure of 
the air in the chest diminishes with the out-going breath. If the 
student breathes rightly, the difficulty may be overcome by sound- 
ing with a constant tone any note in the scale easily within his 
range of pitch. 

(a) Strike a note easily in your range of pitch with the tuning 
fork or other instrument, then sound the word "ah", for a period 
of five seconds, giving special attention to keeping the pitch con- 
stant. Repeat, with other vowels on the same pitch; then vary 
the pitch. 

47. TRAIN FOE CONTROL OF INTENSITY. 

Voices vary considerably in force, intensity, or as we sometimes 
say, "in volume". Some voices are louder than others. Loudness 
determines the carrying power of the voice and it is a cliaract eristic 
of all pitches, whether low or high. Voices of low pitch do not 
carry farther than those of high pitch, necessarily. Carrying power 
depends upon the amount of breath energy the vocal cords will 
stand without irritation and hoarseness. Some voices by nature 
will carry farther than others, but the intensity of all voices may 
be improved by training. A voice of more quiet intensity is much 
more pleasing than one of undue loudness. 

RESONATOR 

Nature of Resonance. Strike a tuning fork and hold it in 
vibration. The faintness of the sound will be apparent. Then, 



THE SPEECH INSTRUMENT 117 

strike the fork again and rest its base on the desk or some other 
solid substance. The tone of the fork will be very much more 
audible. Now, secure a straight sided resonance jar from the Phys- 
ics Laboratory and fill the jar partially with water, until the column 
of air in the jar amplifies the tone of the vibrating fork to the 
greatest degree. Alternate the position of the vibrating fork, now 
holding it away from the jar, now holding the fork over the open- 
ing of the jar. The amplification of the tone by the air cavity in 
the jar is clear. 

Similarly, the vibrations of the human cords are amplified by 
resonance. The difference is that in the voice there is more than 
one resonance cavity and some of the resonators of the voice are 
variable in size. If a tuning fork of another pitch, say four full 
notes higher, is held over the resonance jar, mentioned above, it 
will be noted that the tone is not so well amplified. But the water 
in the jar may be varied in depth for any tone resonance. The 
pitches of the voice vary to a considerable degree; nature has, 
therefore, provided an easily variable resonator for all the pitches 
of the voice. The main air chambers which resonate the voice are 
the nasal, the throat, and the mouth cavities. The size of the 
nasal cavity is fixed, but the size and shape of the throat and 
mouth cavities may be varied. This will be apparent if the vi- 
brating tuning fork is held near the lips opened for the sound of 
"oh"; the cavities of the throat and mouth may be adjusted so as 
to amplify perceptibly the tone of the fork. 



SELECTIONS 



1. HAMLET'S INSTRUCTION TO THE PLAYERS 

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounce it to you, trippingly 
on the tongue, but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I 
had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air 
too much with your hands, thus, but use all gently ; for in the very 
torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you 
must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. 
0, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fel- 
low tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the 
groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inex- 
plicable dumb-shows and noise. I could have such a fellow whipped 
for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. 

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your 
tutor; suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this 
special observance, that you o 'erstep not the modesty of nature ; for 
anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, 
both at first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror 
up to nature ; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, 
and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. 
Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskillful 
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the 
which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of 
others. 0, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others 
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither hav- 
ing the accent of Christian nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor 
man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of 
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they 
imitated humanity so abominably. 

Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2. 

2. POLONIUS'S ADVICE TO LAERTES 

These few precepts in thy memory 

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 

118 



SELECTIONS 119 

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel, 

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 

Of new-hatch 'd unfledged comrade. Beware 

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, 

Bear it, that the opposed may beware of thee. 

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice : 

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 

Costly thy habit, as thy purse can buy, 

But not express 'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy : 

For the apparel oft proclaims the man; 

And they in France of the best rank and station 

Are of a most select and generous chief in that. 

Neither a borrower nor lender be : 

For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 

This above all : to thine own self be true. 

And it must follow, as the night the day, 

Thou canst not then be false to any man. 

—Hamlet, I., 3. 

3. THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 

This is the version which Mr. Lincoln desired to be known as his address at 
Gettysburg. It is a revision of his own manuscript which he did not read and 
the address he spoke as reported by the associated press. The changes are 
slight. Taken from "Gettysburg and Lincoln" by Henry S. Burrage (Putnam, 
1906), page 131. A full description of the occasion will be found pages 
81-140. 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 
this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated 
to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that 
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long en- 
dure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have 
come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for 
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is 
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot conse- 
crate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and 
dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor 



120 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remem- 
ber what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished 
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining 
before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion 
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion 
— that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for 
the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

— A. Lincoln. 

4. THE PRODIGAL SON 

And he said, a certain man had two sons; and the younger of 
them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that 
f alleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many 
days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his jour- 
ney into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous 
living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine 
in that land ; and he began to be in want. 

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; 
and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain 
have been filled with the husks that the swine did eat ; and no man 
gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many 
servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I 
perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will 
say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before 
thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son ; make me as one 
of thy hired servants. 

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a 
great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, 
and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, 
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no 
more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his 
servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a 
ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet ; and bring hither the fatted 
calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was 



SELECTIONS 121 

dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found. And they be- 
gan to be merry. 

Now his older son was in the field ; and as he came and drew nigh 
to the honse, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of 
the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said 
unto him, Thy brother is come ; and thy father hath killed the fatted 
calf because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was 
angry, and would not go in; therefore came his father out, and 
intreated him. 

And he answering, said to his father, Lo, these many years do I 
serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; 
and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with 
my friends; but as soon as this thy son was come which hath de- 
voured thy living, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And 
he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me ; and all that I have 
is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad ; for 
this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost and is 
found. — Bible. 

5. TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTUKE 

If I stood here to-night to tell you the story of Napoleon, I should 
take it from the lips of Frenchmen, who find no language rich 
enough to paint the great captain of the Nineteenth century. If I 
were to tell you the story of Washington, I should take it from your 
hearts, — you, who think no marble white enough in which to carve 
the name of the Father of his country. I am about to tell you the 
story of a negro who has left hardly one written line. I am to 
glean it from the reluctant testimony of Britons, Frenchmen, Span- 
iards, — men who despised him as a negro and a slave, and hated him 
because he had beaten them in many a battle. 

You remember that Macaulay says, comparing Cromwell with 
Napoleon, that Cromwell showed the greater military genius, if we 
consider that he never saw an army until he was forty; while Na- 
poleon was educated when a boy in the best military schools of 
Europe; Cromwell manufactured his own army; Napoleon at the 
age of twenty-seven was placed at the head of the best troops 
Europe ever saw. They were both successful; but, says Macaulay, 
with such disadvantages the Englishman showed the greater genius. 
Whether you allow the inference or not, you will at least allow 



122 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

that it is a fair mode of measurement. Apply it to Toussaint. 
Cromwell never saw an army till lie was forty; this man never 
saw a soldier till he was fifty. Cromwell manufactured his own 
army — out of what ? Englishmen — the best blood in Europe. Out 
of the middle-class among Englishmen — the best blood of the Island. 
And with it he conquered what 1 Englishmen — their equals. This 
man manufactured his army out of what. Out of what you call the 
despicable race of negroes, debased, demoralized by two hundred 
years of slavery, one hundred thousand of them imported into the 
island within four years, unable to speak a dialect intelligible to 
each other. Yet out of this mixed and, as you say, despicable 
mass, he forged a thunderbolt and hurled it at what? At the 
proudest blood in Europe, the Spaniard, and sent him home con- 
quered ; at the most warlike blood in Europe, the French, and put 
them under his feet ; at the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English, 
and they skulked home to Jamaica. Now if Cromwell was a gen- 
eral, at least this man was a soldier. 

Some doubt the courage of the negro. Go to Hayti and stand on 
those fifty thousand graves of the best soldiers France ever had, 
and ask them what they think of the negro's sword. And if that 
does not satisfy you, go to France, to the splendid mausoleum of 
the Counts of Rochambeau, and to the eight thousand graves of 
Frenchmen who skulked home under the English flag, and ask 
them. And if that does not satisfy you, come home, and if it had 
been October, 1859, you might have come by way of quaking Vir- 
ginia, and asked her what she thought of negro courage. 

And you may also remember this — that we Saxons were slaves 
about four hundred years, sold with the land, and our fathers never 
raised a finger to end that slavery. They waited till Christianity 
and civilization, till commerce and the discovery of America melted 
away their chains. Spartacus in Italy led the slaves of Rome 
against the Empress of the world. She murdered him and crucified 
them. There never was a slave rebellion successful but one and 
that was in St. Domingo. Every race has been some time or other 
in chains. But there never was a race that, weakened and degraded 
by such chattel slavery, unaided tore off its own fetters, forged them 
into swords and won its liberty on the battle field, but one, and that 
was the black race of St. Domingo. 

So much for the courage of the negro. Now look at his endur- 



SELECTIONS 123 

ance. In 1805 he said to the white men, ' ' This island is ours ; not 
a white foot shall touch it. ' ' Side by side with him stood the South 
American republics planted by the best blood of the country of 
Lope da Vega and Cervantes. They topple over so often that you 
could no more daguerreotype their crumbling fragments than you 
could the w ? aves of the ocean. And yet at their side the negro has 
kept his island sacredly to himself. It is said that at first with 
rare patriotism the Haytien government ordered the destruction of 
all the sugar plantations remaining and discouraged its culture, 
deeming that the temptation which lured the French back again to 
attempt their enslavement. Burn over New York to-night, fill up 
her canals, sink every ship, destroy her railroads, blot out every 
remnant of education from her sons, let her be ignorant and penni- 
less, with nothing but her hands to begin the world over again — 
how much could she do in sixty years? And Europe, too, would 
lend you money, but she would not lend Hayti a dollar. Hayti 
from the ruins of her colonial dependence, is become a civilized 
state, the seventh nation in the catalogue of commerce with this 
country, inferior in morals and education to none of the West In- 
dian isles. Foreign merchants trust her goods as willingly as they 
do our own. Thus far she has foiled the ambition of Spain, the 
greed of England and the malicious statesmanship of Calhoun. 
Toussaint made her what she is. In this work there have been 
grouped around him a score of men mostly of pure negro blood who 
ably seconded his efforts. They were able in war, and skillful in 
civil affairs, but not unlike remarkable for that rare mingling of 
qualities which alone makes true greatness and insures a man lead- 
ership among those otherwise almost his equals. Toussaint was 
indisputably their chief. Courage, purpose, endurance — these are 
the tests. He did plant a state so deep that all the world has not 
been able to root it up. 

I would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon made his way to the 
empire over broken oaths and through a sea of blood. This man 
never broke his word. "No retaliation," was his great motto and 
the rule of his life ; and the last words uttered to his son in France 
were these : ' ' My boy, you will some day go back to St. Domingo ; 
forget that France murdered your father. ' ' 

I-would call him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a soldier, and 
the State he founded went down with him into his grave. I wo aid 
call him Washington, but the great Virginian held slaves. This 



124 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

man risked his empire rather than permit the slave-trade in the 
humblest village of his dominions. 

Fifty years hence, when truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History 
will put Phocion for the Greek, and Brutus for the Roman, Hamp- 
den for England, Fayette for France, choose Washington as the 
bright, consummate flower of our earlier civilization, and John 
Brown the ripe fruit of our noonday, then, dipping her pen in the 
sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of 
the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture. 

—Wendell Phillips. 

6. MAUDIE DONE BALK 

The stories which especially delight ex-President Wilson are those 
that reveal the real personality of the negro, his naivete and dis- 
inclination to admit that he doesn't understand "big words". 

And it always gives the President keen pleasure to tell Polk 
Miller's story of the darkey and the mule. An old negro went into 
the drug store in Richmond and said : 

"Boss, will you please, suh, call de colonel on de telephone?" 

"Yes," and he called the Colonel. The old darkey said: 

"Colonel, dat ar mule done stall right in de main street right 
out here in front of de store. ' ' 

"Yaas, suh, I done tied strings to his ears, but he didn't budge." 

"Yaas, suh, yaas, suh, what's dat? Yaas, suh, I build a fire un- 
der him, but it didn'a do nuthin' but scorch de harness." 

"Yaas, suh, yaas, suh, I teck de things out, but he wouldn't 
budge." 

"Yaas, suh, yaas, suh; what's dat? No, suh, no, suh, Colonel, 
I didn 't twist his tail. ' ' 

"Yaas, suh, yaas, suh, another gemman twist his tail; he look like 
a Northern gemman." 

"What's dat, Colonel? Yaas, suh, dey done tuk him to de 
hospital." 

"No, suh, no, suh, I ain't heard yet. Too bad, he was a nice 
man. 






7. SPEECH AND SILENCE 

He who speaks honestly cares not, needs not care, though his 
words be preserved to remotest time. The dishonest speaker, not 



SELECTIONS 125 

he only who purposely utters falsehoods, but he who does not pur- 
posely, and with sincere heart, utter Truth, and Truth alone; who 
babbles he knows not what, and has clapped no bridle on his tongue, 
but lets it run riot, ejecting chatter and futility — is among the 
most indisputable malefactors omitted, or inserted, in the Criminal 
Calendar. 

To him that will well consider it, idle speaking is precisely the 
beginning of all Hollo wness, Halfness, Infidelity (want of Faith- 
fulness) ; in the genial atmosphere in which rank weeds of every 
kind attain the mastery over noble fruits in man 's life, and utterly 
choke them out : one of the most crying maladies of these days, and 
to be testified against, and in all ways to the uttermost withstood. 

Wise, of a wisdom far beyond our shallow depth, was that old 
precept, "Watch thy tongue; out of it are the issues of Life!" 
Man is properly an incarnated word: the word that he speaks is 
the man himself. Were eyes put into our head, that we might see, 
or that we might fancy, and plausibly pretend, we had seen? 
Was the tongue suspended there, that it might tell truly what we 
had seen, and make the soul's brother of man; or that it might 
utter vain sounds, jargon, soul-confusing, and so divide man, as by 
enchanting walls of Darkness, from union with man? 

Thou who wearest that cunning, heaven-made organ, a Tongue, 
think well of this. Speak not, I passionately entreat thee, till thy 
thought have silently matured itself, till thou have other than mad 
and mad-making noises to emit : hold thy tongue till some meaning 
lie behind, to set it wagging. 

Consider the significance of Silence: it is boundless, never by 
meditating to be exhausted, unspeakably profitable to thee ! Cease 
that chaotic hubbub, wherein thy own soul runs to waste, to con- 
fused suicidal dislocation and stupor; out of Silence comes thy 
strength. "Speech is silvern, silence is golden; speech is human, 
silence is divine." 

Fool ! thinkest thou that because no one stands near with parch- 
ment and blacklead to note thy jargon, it therefore dies and is harm- 
less? Nothing dies, nothing can die. No idlest word thou speak- 
est but is a seed cast into Time, and grows through all Eternity ! 
The Recording Angel, consider it well, is no fable, but the truest 
of truths: the paper tablets thou canst burn; of the "iron leaf" 
there is no burning. 

— Thomas Carlyle. 



126 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

8. EFFECTIVENESS IN SPEAKING 1 

While it is absolutely necessary for the orator to master his sub- 
ject and to speak with earnestness, his speech can be made more 
effective by the addition of clearness, brevity and apt illustrations. 

Clearness of statement is of very great importance. It is not 
sufficient to say that there are certain self-evident truths; it is 
more accurate to say that all truth is self-evident. Because truth 
is self-evident, the best service that one can render a truth is to 
state is so clearly that it can be comprehended, needs no argument 
in its support. In debate, therefore, one's first effort should be to 
state his own side so clearly and concisely as to make the principles 
involved easily understood. His second object should be to divest 
his opponent's argument of useless verbiage as to make it stand 
forth clearly; for as truth is self-evident, so error bears upon its 
face its own condemnation. Error needs only to be exposed to be 
overthrown. 

Brevity of statement also contributes to the force of a speaker. 
It is possible so to enfold a truth in long-drawn-out sentences as 
practically to conceal it. The epigram is powerful because it is 
full of meat and short enough to be remembered. To know when 
to stop is almost as important as to know where to begin and how 
to proceed. The ability to condense great thoughts into small 
words and brief sentences is an attribute of genius. Often one 
lays down a book with the feeling that the author has "said nothing 
with elaboration," while in perusing another book one finds a whole 
sermon in a single sentence, or an unanswerable argument couched 
in a well-turned phrase. 

The interrogatory is frequently employed by the orator, and 
when wisely used is irresistible. What dynamic power, for instance, 
there is in that question propounded by Christ, "What shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" 
Volumes could not have presented so effectively the truth that he 
sought to impress upon his hearers. 

The illustration has no unimportant place in the equipment of 
the orator. We understand a thing more easily when we know 
that it is like something which we have already seen. Illustrations 
may be drawn from two sources — nature and literature — and of 



Used by special permission. 



SELECTIONS 127 

the two, those from nature have the greater weight. All learning 
is valuable; all history is useful. By knowing what has been we 
can better judge the future ; by knowing how men have acted here- 
tofore we can understand how they will act again in similar cir- 
cumstances. But people know nature better than they know books, 
and the illustrations drawn from everyday life are the most ef- 
fective. 

If the orator can seize upon something within the sight or hear- 
ing of his audience, — something that comes to his notice at the 
moment and as if not thought of before, — it will add to the effective- 
ness of the illustration. For instance, Paul's speech to the Athen- 
ians derived a large part of its strength from the fact that he called 
attention to an altar near by, erected ' ' to the Unknown God, ' ' and 
then proceeded to declare unto them the God whom they ignorantly 
worshiped. 

Abraham Lincoln used scripture quotations very frequently and 
very powerfully. Probably no Bible quotation, or, for that matter, 
no quotation from any book ever has had more influence upon a 
people than the famous quotation made by Lincoln in his Spring- 
field speech of 1858, — "A house divided against itself cannot 
stand." It is said that he had searched for some time for a phrase 
which would present in the strongest possible way the proposition 
he intended to advance — namely, that the nation could not endure 
half slave and half free. 

It is a compliment to a public speaker that the audience should 
discuss what he says rather than his manner of saying it; more 
complimentary that they should remember his arguments, than 
that they should praise his rhetoric. The orator should seek to 
conceal himself behind his subject. If he presents himself in every 
speech he is sure to become monotonous, if not offensive. If, how- 
ever, he focuses attention upon his subject, he can find an infinite 
number of themes and, therefore, give variety to his speech. 

— William J. Bryan. 

9. CASSIUS INSTIGATING BRUTUS 

Well, honour is the subject of my story. 
I cannot tell what you and other men 
Think of this life, but, for my single self, 
I had as lief not be as live to be 



128 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

In awe of such a thing as I myself. 

I was born free as Caesar; so were you: 

We both have fed as well, and we can both 

Endure the winter's cold as well as he: 

For once upon a raw and gustj r day, 

The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, 

Caesar said to me, "Darest thou, Cassius, now 

Leap in with me into this angry flood, 

And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word, 

Accoutred as I was, I plunged in 

And bade him follow : so indeed he did. 

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it 

"With lusty sinews, throwing it aside 

And stemming it with hearts of controversy ; 

But ere we could arrive the point proposed, 

Caesar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!" 

I, as iEneas our great ancestor 

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder 

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber 

Did I the tired Caesar: and this man 

Is now become a god, and Cassius is 

A wretched creature, and must bend his body 

If Caesar carelessly but nod on him. 

He had a fever when he was in Spain, 

And when the fit was on him, I did mark 

How he did shake : 'tis true, this god did shake ; 

His coward lips did from their colour fly, 

And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world 

Did lose his lustre : I did hear him groan : 

Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans 

Mark him and write his speeches in their books, 

Alas, it cried, "Give me some drink, Titinius," 

As a sick girl. Ye gods ! it doth amaze me 

A man of such a feeble temper should 

So get the start of the majestic world 

And bear the palm alone. 

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world 

Like a Colossus, and we petty men 

Walk under his huge legs and peep about 



SELECTIONS 129 

To find ourselves dishonorable graves. 
Men at some time are masters of their fates : 
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings. 
Brutus, and Caesar: what should be in that Caesar? 
Why should the name be sounded, more than yours ? 
Write them together, yours is as fair a name ; 
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well ; 
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em, 
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar. 
Now, in the names of all the gods at once, 
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, 
That he is grown so great ? Age, thou art ashamed ! 
Rorae, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods ! 
When went there by an age, since the great flood, 
But it was famed with more than with one man? 
When could they say till now that talk'd of Rome 
That her wide walls encompass 'd but one man? 
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough, 
When there is in it but one only man. 
0, you and I have heard our fathers say 
There was a Brutus once that would have brook 'd 
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome 
As easily as a king. 

Julius Caesar, 1, 2. 

10. SHAKESPEARE'S IMAGINATION 

Shakespeare exceeded all the sons of men in the splendor of his 
imagination. To him the whole world paid tribute, and Nature 
poured her treasures at his feet. In him all races lived again, and 
even those to be were pictured in his brain. 

He was a man of imagination — that is to say, of genius, and hav- 
ing seen a leaf, and a drop of water, he could construct the forests, 
the rivers and the seas. In his presence all the cataracts would 
fall and foam, the mists rise, the clouds form and float. 

If Shakespeare knew one fact, he knew its kindred and its neigh- 
bors. Looking at a coat of mail, he instantly imagined the society r 
the conditions, that produced it and what it, in turn, produced. 
He saw the castle, the moat, the drawbridge, the lady in the tower, 



130 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

and the knightly lover spurring across the plain. He saw the bold 
baron and rude retainer, the trampled serf, and all the glory and 
the grief of feudal life. 

He lived the life of all. He was a citizen of Athens in the days 
of Pericles. He listened to the eager eloquence of the great orators, 
and sat upon the cliffs, and with the tragic poet heard "the multi- 
tudinous laughter of the sea". He saw Socrates thrust the spear 
of question through the shield and heart of falsehood. He was 
present when the great man drank Hemlock, and met the night of 
death, tranquil as a star meets morning. He listened to the peri- 
patetic philosophers, and was unpuzzled by the sophists. He 
watched Phidias as he chiseled shapeless stones to forms of love 
and awe. 

He walked the ways of mighty Rome, and saw great Caesar with 
his legions in the field. He stood with vast and motley throngs, 
and watched the triumphs given to victorious men, followed by 
uncrowned kings, the captured hosts, and all the spoils of ruthless 
w r ar. He heard the shout that shook the Coliseum's roofless walls, 
when from the reeling gladiator's hand the short sword fell, while 
from his bosom gushed the stream of wasted life. 

The imagination had a stage in Shakespeare's brain, whereon 
were set all scenes that lie between the morn of laughter and the 
night of tears, and where his players bodied forth the false and 
true, the joys and griefs, the careless shallows and the tragic deeps 
of universal life. 

Shakespeare was an intellectual ocean, whose waves touched all 
the shores of thought; within which were all the tides and waves 
of destiny and will ; over which swept all the storms of fate, ambi- 
tion, and revenge; upon which fell the gloom and darkness of 
despair and death and all the sunlight of content and love, and 
within which was the inverted sky, lit with the eternal stars — an 
intellectual ocean — towards which all rivers ran, and from which 
now the isles and continents of thought receive their dew and rain. 

— Robert G. Ingersoll. 

11. DANIEL O'CONNELL 

I do not think I exaggerate when I say that never since God 
made Demosthenes has He made a man better fitted for a great 
work than Daniel O 'Connell. 



SELECTIONS 131 

You may say that I am partial to my hero, but John Randolph 
of Roanoke, who hated an Irishman almost as much as he did a 
Yankee, when he got to London and heard O'Connell, the old slave- 
holder threw up his hands and exclaimed, "This is the man, those 
are the lips, the most eloquent that speak English in my day, ' ' and 
I think he was right. 

Webster could address a bench of judges; Everett could charm 
a college; Choate could deluge a jury; Clay could magnetize a 
senate ; and Tom Corwin could hold the mob in his right hand, but 
no one of these men could do more than this one thing. The won- 
der about O'Connell was that he could out-talk Corwin, he could 
charm a college better than Everett, and leave Henry Clay himself 
far behind in magnetizing a senate. 

It has been my privilege to have heard all the great orators of 
America who have become singularly famed about the world's cir- 
cumference. I know what was the majesty of Webster; I know 
what it was to melt under the magnetism of Henry Clay; I have 
seen eloquence in the iron logic of Calhoun; but O'Connell was 
Webster, Clay, and Calhoun in one. Before the courts, logic; at 
the bar of the senate, unanswerable and dignified ; on the platform, 
grace, wit and pathos; before the masses, a whole man. Emerson 
says, ' ' There is no true eloquence, unless there is a man behind the 
speech." Daniel O'Connell was listened to because all England 
and Ireland knew that there was a man behind the speech, — one 
who could neither be bought, bullied, nor cheated. 

When I was in Naples, I asked Thomas Fowell Buxton, "Is 
Daniel O'Connell an honest man?" "As honest a man as ever 
breathed," said he, and then he told me the following story: 
"When, in 1830, O'Connell first entered Parliament, the anti- 
slavery cause was so weak that it had only Lushington and myself to 
speak for it, and we agreed that when he spoke I should cheer him 
up, and when I spoke he should cheer me, and these were the only 
cheers we ever got. O'Connell came with one Irish member to 
support him. A large party of members (I think Buxton said 
twenty-seven) whom we called the West India interest, the Bristol 
party, the slave party, went to him, saying, 'O'Connell, at last you 
are in the House, with one helper. If you never go down to Free- 
mason's Hall w T ith Buxton and Brougham, here are twenty-seven 
votes for you on every Irish question. If you work with those 
Abolitionists, count us always against you.' " 



132 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

It was a terrible temptation. How many a so-called statesman 
would have yielded! O'Connell said, "Gentlemen, God knows I 
speak for the saddest people the sun sees ; but may my right hand 
forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if 
to help Ireland — even Ireland — I forget the negro one single hour. ,, 
"From that day," said Buxton, "Lushington and I never went 
into the lobby that O'Connell did not follow us." 

And then, besides his irreproachable character he had what is half 
the power of a popular orator, he had a majestic presence. A little 
O'Connell w T ould have been no O'Connell at all. In youth he had 
the brow of a Jupiter and a stature of Apollo. Sidney Smith says 
of Lord John Russell's five feet, when he went down to Yorkshire 
after the Reform Bill had passed, the stalwart hunters of Yorkshire 
exclaimed, "What, that little shrimp, he carry the Reform Bill?" 
"No, no," said Smith, "he was a large man, but the labors of the 
bill shrunk him." 

I remember the story Russell Lowell tells of Webster; when a 
year or two before his death, the Whig party thought of dissolution, 
Webster came home from Washington and went down to Faneuil 
Hall to protest, and four thousand of his fellow Whigs came out; 
drawing himself up to his loftiest proportion, his brow charged 
with thunder, before the listening thousands, he said, "Gentlemen, 
I am a Whig, a Massachusetts Whig, a Faneuil Hall Whig, a revo- 
lutionary Whig, a constitution Whig. If you break up the Whig 
party, sir; where am I to go?" And, says Lowell, "We all held 
our breath, thinking where he could go. But if he had been five 
feet three, we should have said, 'Who cares where you go?' " 

Well, O'Connell had all that; and true nature seemed to be 
speaking all over him. It would have been a pleasure even to look 
at him if he had not spoken at all, and all you thought of was a 
greyhound. 

And then he had what so few American speakers have, a voice 
that sounded the gamut, I heard him (O'Connell) once in Exeter 
Hall say, "Americans, I send my voice careering across the Atlantic 
like a thunder-storm, to tell the slave-holders of the Carolinas that 
God's thunderbolts are hot, and to remind the negro that the dawn 
of his redemption is drawing near," and I seemed to hear his voice 
reverberating and re-echoing back to Boston from the Rocky 
Mountains. 



SELECTIONS 133 

And then, with the slightest possible flavor of an Irish brogue, 
he would tell a story that would make all Exeter Hall laugh, and 
the next moment there would be tears in his voice, like an old song, 
and five thousand men would be in tears. And all the while no 
effort — he seemed only breathing. 

"As effortless as woodland nooks 
Send violets up and paint them blue. ' ' 

—Wendell Phillips. 
12. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 

(From a lecture delivered in England on "The Mormons.") 

I really don't care for money. I only travel round to see the 
world and to exhibit my clothes. These clothes I have on were a 
great success in America. (He wore a fashionably cut dress suit.) 

How often do large fortunes ruin young men ! I should like to 
be ruined, but I can get on very well as I am. 

I am not an artist. I 've always loved pictures. I could draw on 
wood at a very tender age. When a mere child I once drew a small 
cart-load of raw turnips over a wooden bridge. The people of the 
village noticed me. I drew their attention. They said I had a 
future before me. Up to that time I had an idea it was behind me. 

Time passed on. It always does, by the way. You may possibly 
have noticed that Time passes on. It is a kind of way Time has. 

I became a man. I haven't distinguished myself at all as an 
artist — but I have always been more or less mixed up with art. I 
have an uncle who takes photographs — and I have a servant who — 
takes anything he can get his hands on. 

When I was in Rome — Rome in New York State, I mean — a dis- 
tinguished sculpist wanted to sculp me. But I said "No." I saw 
through the designing man. My model once in his hands — he would 
have flooded the market with my busts — and I couldn't stand it to 
see everybody going round with a bust of me. Everybody would 
want one, of course — and wherever I should go I should meet the 
educated classes with my bust, taking it home to their families. 
This would be more than my modesty could stand — and I should 
have to return to America — where my creditors are. 

I like art. I admire dramatic art — although I failed as an actor. 
It was in my school-boy days that I failed as an actor. The play 



134 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

was "The Ruins of Pompeii." I played the ruins. It was not a 
very successful performance — but it was better than the "Burning 
Mountain". He was not good. He was a bad Vesuvius. 

The remembrance often makes me ask — "Where are the boys of 
my youth?" I assure you this is not a conundrum. Some are 
amongst you here — some in America — some are in jail. 

A gentleman friend of mine came to me one day with tears in 
his eyes. I said, "Why these weeps?" He said he had a mort- 
gage on his farm — and wanted to borrow £200. I lent him the 
money — and he went away. Some time afterward he returned with 
more tears. He said he must leave me forever. I ventured to 
remind him of the £200 he borrowed. He was much cut up. I 
thought I would not be hard upon him — so I told him I would 
throw off £100. He brightened — shook my hand — and said, "Old 
friend — I won't allow you to outdo me in liberality — I'll throw off 
the other hundred." 

As a manager I was always rather more successful than as an 
actor. 

Some years ago I engaged a celebrated Living American Skeleton 
for a tour through Australia. He was the thinnest man I ever 
saw. He was a splendid skeleton. He didn't weigh anything 
scarcely — and I said to myself — the people of Australia will flock 
to see this tremendous curiosity. It was a long voyage — as you 
know — from New York to Melbourne — and to my utter surprise 
the skeleton had no sooner got out to sea than he commenced eating 
in the most horrible manner. He had never been on the ocean 
before — and he said it agreed with him — I thought so ! — I never 
saw a man eat so much in my life. Beef, mutton, pork — he swal- 
lowed them all like a shark — and between meals he was often dis- 
covered behind barrels eating hard-boiled eggs. The result was 
that, when we reached Melbourne, this infamous skeleton weighed 
sixty-four pounds more than I did ! 

I thought I was ruined — but I wasn't. I took him on to Cali- 
fornia — another big sea voyage — and when I got him to San Fran- 
cisco I exhabited him as a fat man. 

This story hasn't anything to do with my entertainment, I know, 
— but one of the principal features of my entertainment is that it 
contains so many things that don 't have anything to do with it. 

— Artemus Ward. 



SELECTIONS 135 

13. SECOND INAUGURAL 

Fellow Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath 
of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for extended address 
than there was at first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a 
course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now at the ex- 
piration of four years, during which public declarations have been 
constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest 
which absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, 
little that is new could be presented. On the occasion correspond- 
ing to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to 
an impending civil war. All dreaded it ; all sought to avoid it. 

While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, 
devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent 
agents were in the city seeking to destroy it with war, seeking to 
dissolve the Union and divide the effects of negotiation. Both 
parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather 
than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather 
than let it perish, and the war came. One-eighth of the whole 
population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the 
Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves 
constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this 
interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, per- 
petuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the in- 
surgents would rend the Union by war, while the Government 
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlarge- 
ment of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or 
the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated 
that the cause might cease with or even before the conflict itself 
should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less 
fundamental and astounding. 

Both read the same Bible and prayed to the same God, and each 
invoked His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any 
men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their 
bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, 
that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered ; 
that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His 
own purpose. 

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that 



136 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred 
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 
drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn 
with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it 
must be said, "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether." "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with 
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to 
care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his wddow and 
his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and 
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 

— A. Lincoln. 

14. CROSSING THE BAR 

Sunset and evening star, one clear call for me ! 
And may there be no moaning at the bar, when I put out to sea, 
But such a tide as moving seems asleep, too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep turns again 
home. 

Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark ! 

And may there be no sadness of farewell, when I embark; 

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place the flood may 

bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar. 

— Lord Tennyson. 

15. NAPOLEON 

A little while ago I stood at the grave of Napoleon — a mag- 
nificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost for a deity, dead, and 
gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless marble, w r here 
rest, at last, the ashes of that restless man. I leaned over the bal- 
ustrade, and thought about the career of the greatest soldier of the 
modern world. I saw him walking upon the banks of the Seine, 
contemplating suicide; I saw him at Toulon; I saw him putting 
down the mob on the streets of Paris ! I saw him at the head of the 
army of Italy ; I saw him crossing the bridge at Lodi, with the tri* 
color in his hand ; I saw him in the shadows of the Pyramids ; I saw 
him conquer the Alps and mingle the eagle of France with the 



SELECTIONS 137 

eagles of the crags ; I saw him at Marengo, at Ulm, and Austerlitz. 
I saw him in Russia, when the infantry of the snows and the cav- 
alry of the wild beasts scattered his legions like winter's withered 
leaves. I saw him at Leipsic in defeat and disaster, driven back 
upon Paris before a million bayonets, plucked like a wild beast, 
banished at Elba. I saw him on the frightful field of Waterloo, 
where chance and fate combined to wreck the fortunes of their 
former king. And I saw him at lonely St. Helena, with his hands 
crossed behind him, looking out upon the sad and solemn sea. 

And I thought of the widows and orphans he had made ; of the 
tears that had been shed for his glory, and of the only woman who 
ever loved him, pushed from his heart by the cold hand of ambition. 
And I said I would rather have been a French peasant, and worn 
wooden shoes. I would rather have lived in a hut, with a vine 
growing over the door and the grapes growing purple in the amor- 
ous kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather have been that poor 
peasant, with my wife by my side knitting as the day died out of 
the sky, with my children upon my knees and their arms about me. 
I would rather have been this man and gone down to the tongueless 
silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been the imperial per- 
sonation of force and murder known as Napoleon the Great. 

— Robert G. Ingersoll. 

16. "AMERICA FOR ME" 1 

'Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down 
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown, 
To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings, — 
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things. 

So it's home again, and home again, America for me! 
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, 
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars, 
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. 

Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air; 
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair; 



1 Copyright 1911 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Used by special permission 
of the author. 



138 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study Rome^ 
But when it comes to living there is no place like home. 

I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled; 
I like the garden of Versailles with flashing fountains filled ; 
But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day 
In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way ! 

I know that Europe 's wonderful, yet something seems to lack : 
The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back. 
But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free, — 
We love our land for what she is and what she is to be. 

Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me! 
1 want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea, 
To the blessed Land of Boom Enough beyond the ocean bars,. 
Where the air is full of sunlight afiid the flag is full of stars. 

— Henry van Dyke. 

17. SANDALPHON* 

Have you read in the Talmud of old, 
In the Legends the Rabbins have told 

Of the limitless realms of the air, 
Have you read it, — the marvelous story 
Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory, 

Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer? 

How, erect, at the outermost gate 
Of the City Celestial he waits, 

With his feet on the ladder of light, 
That, crowded with angels unnumbered, 
By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered 

Alone in the desert at night? 

The Angels of Wind and of Fire 
Chant only one hymn, and expire 
With the song's irresistible stress; 



] Used by special permission and arrangement with Houghton Mifflin and Co.,, 
holders of copyright. 



SELECTIONS 139 

Expire in their rapture and wonder, 
As harp-strings are broken asunder 
By the music they throb to express. 

But serene in the rapturous throng, 
Unmoved by the rush of the song, 

With eyes unimpassioned and slow, 
Among the dead angels, and deathless 
Sandalphon stands, listening breathless 

To sounds that ascend from below; — 

From the spirits on earth that adore, 
From the souls that entreat and implore 

In the fervor and passion of prayer; 
From the hearts that are broken with losses, 
And weary with dragging the crosses 

Too heavy for mortals to bear. 

And he gathers the prayers as he stands, 
And they change into flowers in his hands, 

Into garlands of purple and red ; 
And beneath the great arch of the portal, 
Through the streets of the City Immortal 

Is wafted the fragrance they shed. 

It is but a legend, I know, — 
A fable, a phantom, a show, 

Of the ancient Rabbinical lore ; 
Yet the old medieval tradition, 
The beautiful, strange superstition, 

But haunts me and holds me the more. 

When I look from my window at night, 
And the welkin above is all white, 

All throbbing and panting with stars, 
Among them majestic is standing 
Sandalphon the angel expanding 

His pinions in nebulous bars. 



140 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

And the legend, I feel, is a part 

Of the hunger and thirst of the heart, 

The frenzy and fire of the brain, 
That grasps at the fruitage forbidden, 
The golden pomegranates of Eden, 

To quiet its fever and pain. 

— Henry W. Longfellow. 



18. MAKERS OF THE FLAG 

Delivered on Flag Day, 1914, before the employees of the De- 
partment of the Interior, Washington, D. C, by Franklin K. Lane, 
Secretary of the Interior. 

This morning, as I passed into the Land Office, The Flag dropped 
me a most cordial salutation, and from its rippling folds I heard it 
say, "Good-morning, Mr. Flag-Maker." 

"I beg your pardon, Old Glory," I said, "aren't you mistaken? 
I am not the President of the United States, nor a member of 
Congress, nor even a general in the army. I am only a Government 
clerk." 

"I greet you again, Mr. Flag-Maker," replied the gay voice. 
"I know you well. You are the man who worked in the swelter 
of yesterday straightening out the tangle of that farmer's home- 
stead in Idaho, or perhaps you found the mistake in that Indian 
contract in Oklahoma, or helped to clear that patent for the hopeful 
inventor in New York, or pushed the opening of that new ditch in 
Colorado, or made that mine in Illinois more safe, or brought relief 
to the old soldier in Wyoming. No matter ; whichever one of these 
beneficial individuals you happen to be, I give you greeting, Mr. 
Flag-Maker." 

I was about to pass on, when The Flag stopped me with these 
words : — 

"Yesterday the President spoke a word that made happier the 
future of ten million peons in Mexico ; but that act looms no larger 
on the flag than the struggle which the boy in Georgia is making 
to win the Corn Club prize this summer. 

"Yesterday the Congress spoke a word which will open the door 
of Alaska ; but the mother in Michigan worked from sunrise until 



SELECTIONS 141 

far into the night, to give her boy an education. She, too, is mak- 
ing the flag. 

"Yesterday we made a new law to prevent financial panics, and 
yesterday, maybe, a school teacher in Ohio taught his first letters 
to a boy who will one day write a song that will give cheer to the 
millions of our race. We are all making the flag. ' ' 

"But," I said impatiently, "these people were only working!" 

Then came a great shout from The Flag: — 

"The work that we do is the making of the flag. 

"I am not the flag; not at all. I am but its shadow. 

"I am whatever you make me, nothing more. 

1 ' I am your belief in yourself, your dream of what a people may 
become. 

"I live a changing life, a life of moods and passions, of heart- 
breaks and tired muscles. 

"Sometimes I am strong with pride, when men do an honest 
work, fitting the rails together truly. 

"Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from me, and 
cynically I play the coward. 

"Sometimes I am loud, garish, and full of that ego that blasts 
judgment. 

"But always I am all that you hope to be, and have the courage 
to try for. 

"lam song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope. 

"lam the day 's work of the weakest man, and the largest dream 
of the most daring. 

"I am the Constitution and the courts, statutes and the statute 
makers, soldier and dreadnaught, drayman and street sweep, cook, 
counselor, and clerk. 

"I am the battle of yesterday, and the mistake of tomorrow. 

' ' I am the mystery of the men who do without knowing wiry. 

"I am the clutch of an idea, and the reasoned purpose of reso- 
lution. 

' ' I am no more than what you believe me to be and I am all that 
you believe I can be. 

"I am what you make me, nothing more. 

"I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol 
of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes 
this nation. My stars and my stripes are your dream and your 



142 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

labors. They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm 
with faith, because you have made them so out of your hearts. 
For you are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory 
in the making." 

— Franklin K. Lane. 

19. THE DAY IS DONE 1 

The day is done, and the darkness 

Falls from the wings of Night, 
As a feather is wafted downward 

From an eagle in his flight. 

I see the lights of the village 

Gleam through the rain and the mist, 

And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me 
That my soul cannot resist: 

A feeling of sadness and longing, 

That is not akin to pain, 
And resembles sorrow only 

As the mist resembles the rain. 

Come, read to me some poem, 

Some simple and heartfelt lay, 
That shall soothe this restless feeling, 

And banish the thoughts of day. 

Not from the grand old masters, 

Not from the bards sublime, 
Whose distant footsteps echo 

Through the corridors of Time. 

For, like strains of martial music, 

Their mighty thoughts suggest 
Life's endless toil and endeavor; 

And to-night I long for rest. 



i Used by special permission and arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Co., 
holders of copyright. 



SELECTIONS 143 

Read from some humbler poet, 

Whose songs gushed from his heart, 

As showers from the clouds of summer, 
Or tears from the eyelids start; 

Who, through long days of labor, 

And nights devoid of ease, 
Still heard in his soul the music, 

Of wonderful melodies. 

Such songs have power to quiet 

The restless pulse of care, 
And come like the benediction 

That follows after prayer. 

Then read from the treasured volume 

The poem of thy choice, 
And lend to the rhyme of the poet 

The beauty of thy voice. 

And the night shall be filled with music, 

And the cares that infest the day, 
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, 

And silently steal away. 

— Henry W. Longfellow. 

20. BIBLE 

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom of heaven prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world: 

For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and 
ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in : 

Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I was 
in prison, and ye came unto me. 

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we 
thee an hungered and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? 

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and 
clothed thee ? 

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? 



144 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto 
you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, 
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels : 

For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, 
and ye gave me no drink : 

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed 
me not : sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee 
an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in 
prison, and did not minister unto thee ? 

Then shall he answer them saying, Verily, I say unto you, Inas- 
much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the 
righteous into life eternal. 

—Matthew 25, 34-46. 

21. BIBLE 

Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also 
in me. 

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

And if I go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 
receive you unto myself ; that where I am there ye may be also. 

And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 

—John 14: 1-4. 

22. AMERICA, THE BEAUTIFUL 

Oh beautiful for spacious skies ; 

For amber waves of grain; 
For purple mountain majesties 

Above the fruited plain ! 
America ! America ! 

God shed his grace on thee, 
And crown thy good with brotherhood 

From sea to shining sea. 



SELECTIONS 145 

Oh beautiful for pilgrim feet, 

Whose stern impassioned stress, 
A thoroughfare for freedom beat 

Across the wilderness. 
America ! America ! 

God mend thine every flaw; 
Confirm thy soul in self control: 

Thy liberty in law. 

Oh beautiful for heroes proved 

In liberating strife; 
Who more than self their country loved, 

And mercy, more than life. 
America ! America ! 

May God thy gold refine, 
Till all success be nobleness, 

And every gain divine ! 

Oh beautiful for patriot dream 

That sees beyond the years 
Thine alabaster cities gleam 
Undimmed by human tears ! 

America ! America ! 
God shed his grace on thee; 
And crown thy good with brotherhood, 
From sea to shining sea ! 

— Katherine Lee Bates. 

23. SHYLOCK'S HATRED OF ANTONIO 

How like a fawning publican he looks! 
I hate him for he is a Christian; 
But more for that in low simplicity 
He lends out money gratis and brings down 
The rate of usance here with us in Venice. 
If I can catch him once upon the hip, 
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. 
He hates our sacred nation ; and he rails, 
Even there where merchants most do congregate, 
On me, mj^ bargains, and my well-won thrift, 
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe, 
If I forgive him ! 

— Merchant of Venice, i., 3. 



146 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

24. SHYLOCK TO ANTONIO 
You came to me, and you say, 

"Shylock, we would have moneys:" you say so; 
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, 
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur 
Over your threshold : moneys is your suit. 
What should I say to you ? Should I not say 

"Hath a dog money? is it possible 
A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? " Or 
Shall I bend low and in a bondsman 's key, 
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, 
Say this, — 

"Fair sir, you spit on me Wednesday last; 
You spurn 'd me such a day ; another time 
You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies 
I'll lend you thus much moneys"? 

— Merchant of Venice, i., 3. 

25. SHYLOCK 'S JUSTIFICATION 

He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million ! laughed 
at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my 
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his 
reason ? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes ? hath not a Jew hands, 
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same 
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, 
healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter 
and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? 
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not 
die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like 
you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a 
Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong 
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example ? Why, 
revenge. 

— Merchant of Venice, iii, 1. 

26. THE HOMES OF THE PEOPLE 

I went to Washington the other day, and I stood on the Capitol 
Hill; my heart beat quick as I looked at the towering marble of my 
country's Capitol and a mist gathered in my eyes as I thought of 



SELECTIONS 147 

its tremendous significance, of the armies and the treasury, and the 
judges and the President, and the Congress and the courts, and all 
that was gathered there. And I felt that the sun in all its course 
could not look down on a better sight than that majestic home of a 
republic that had taught the world its best lessons of liberty. And 
I felt that if honor and wisdom and justice abided therein, the 
world would at least owe that great house in which the ark of the 
covenant of my country is lodged, its final uplifting and its re- 
generation. 

Two days afterward I went to visit a friend in the country, a 
modest man, with a quiet country home. It was just a simple, un- 
pretentious house, set about with big trees, encircled in meadow and 
field rich with the promise of harvest. The fragrance of the pink 
and holly-hock in the front yard was mingled with the aroma of 
the orchard and of the gardens, and resonant with the cluck of 
poultry and the hum of bees. 

Inside was quiet, cleanliness, thrift, and comfort. There was 
the old clock that had welcomed r in steady measure, every new- 
comer to the family, that had ticked the solemn requiem of the 
dead, and had kept company with the watcher at the bedside. There 
were the big, restful beds and the old open fireplace, and the old 
family Bible, thumbed with the fingers of hands long since still, 
and wet with the tears of eyes long since closed, holding the simple 
annals of the family and the heart and the conscience of the home. 

Outside, there stood my friend, the master, a simple, upright 
man, with no mortgage on his roof, no lien on his growing crops, 
master of his land and master of himself. There was his old father, 
an aged trembling man, but happy in the heart and home of his son. 
And as they started to their home, the hands of the old man went 
down on the young man's shoulder, lying there the unspeakable 
blessing of the honored and grateful father and ennobling it with 
the knighthood of the fifth commandment. 

And as they reached the door the old mother came with the 
sunset falling fair on her face, and lighting up her deep, patient 
eyes, while her lips, trembling with the rich music of her heart, 
bade her husband and son welcome to their home. Beyond was 
the house-wife, busy with her household cares, clean of heart and 
conscience, the buckler and helpmate of her husband. Down the 
lane came the children, trooping home after the cows, seeking as 
truant birds do the quiet of their home nest. 



148 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

And I saw the night come down on that house, falling gently 
as the wings of the unseen dove. And the old man — while a 
startled bird called from the forest, and the trees were shrill with 
the cricket's cry, and the stars were swarming in the sky — got the 
family around him, and taking the old Bible from the table, called 
them to their knees, the little baby hiding in the folds of its mother's 
dress, while he closed the record of the simple day by calling down 
God's benediction on that family and on that home. And while 
I gazed, the vision of that marble Capitol faded. Forgotten were 
its treasures and its majesty, and I said, "Oh, surely here in the 
homes of the people are lodged at last the strength and responsi- 
bility of this government, the hope and the promise of this re- 
public." 

— Henry W. Grady. 

27. KING ROBERT OF SICILY 1 

Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane 

And Valmond, Emperor of Allemaine, 

Appareled in magnificant attire, 

With retinue of many a knight and squire, 

On St. John's eve, at vespers, proudly sat 

And heard the priests chant the Magnificat. 

And as he listened, o 'er and o 'er again 

Repeated, like a burden or refrain, 

He caught the words, "Deposuit potentates 

De sede et exaltavit humiles;" 

And slowly lifting up his kingly head, 

He to a learned clerk beside him said, 

"What mean these words?" The clerk made answer meet 
1 ' He puts down the mighty from their seat, 

And has exalted them of low degree." 

Thereat King Robert muttered scornfully, 
' ' 'Tis well that such seditious words are sung 

Only by priests and in the Latin tongue ; 

For unto priests and people be it known, 



1 Used by special permission and arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Co., 
holders of copyright. 



SELECTIONS 149 

There is no power can push me from my throne ! ' ' 
And leaning back, he yawned and fell asleep, 
Lulled by the chant monotonous and deep. 

When he awoke it was already night; 

The church was empty and there was no light, 

Save where the lamps, that glimmering few and faint 

Lighted a little space before some saint. 

He started from his seat and gazed around, 

But saw no living thing and heard no sound. 

He groped towards the door, but it was locked ; 

He cried aloud, and listened, and then knocked, 

And uttered awful threatenings and complaints, 

And imprecations upon men and saints, 

The sound re-echoed from the roofs and walls 

As if dead priests were laughing in their stalls. 

At length the sexton, hearing from without 
The tumult of the knocking and the shout, 
And thinking thieves were in the house of prayer, 
Came with his lantern, asking, "Who is there?" 
Half choked with rage, King Robert fiercely said, 
'Open: 'tis I, the King! Art thou afraid?" 
The frightened sexton, muttering with a curse, 
'This is some drunken vagabond, or worse!" 
Turned the great key and flung the portal wide; 
A man rushed by him at a single stride, 
Haggard, half naked, without hat or cloak, 
Who neither turned, nor looked at him, nor spoke, 
But leaped into the blackness of the night 
And vanished like a specter from his sight. 

Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane 
And Valmond, Emperor of Allemaine, 
Despoiled of his magnificent attire, 
Bareheaded, breathless, and besprent with mire, 
With sense of wrong and outrage desperate, 
Strode on and thundered at the palace gate ; 
Rushed through the court-yard, thrusting in his rage 



150 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

To right and left each seneschal and page, 
And hurried up the broad and sounding stair, 
His white face ghastly in the torch's glare. 
From hall to hall he passed with breathless speed ; 
Voices and cries he heard, but did not heed, 
Until at last he reached the banquet room, 
Blazing with light and breathing with perfume. 

There on the dais sat another king, 
Wearing his robes, his crown, his signet-ring, 
King Robert's self in feature, form and height, 
But all transfigured with angelic light! 
It was an Angel ; and his presence there 
With a divine effulgence filled the air. 

A moment speechless, motionless, amazed, 

The throneless monarch on the Angel gazed, 

Who met his look of anger and surprise 

With the divine compassion of his eyes; 

Then said, "Who art thou? and why com'st thou here?" 

To which King Robert answered with a sneer, 

"I am the King, and come to claim my own 
From an imposter, who usurps my throne!" 
And suddenly, at these audacious words, 
Up sprang the angry guests, and drew their swords ! 
The Angel answered with unruffled brow, 

"Nay, not the King, but the King's Jester, thou 
Henceforth shalt wear the bells and scalloped cape, 
And for thy counsellor shalt lead an ape ; 
Thou shalt obey my servants when they call, 
And wait upon my henchmen in the hall!" 
Deaf to King Robert's threats and cries and prayers, 
They thrust him from the hall and down the stairs ; 
A group of tittering pages ran before, 
And as they opened wide the folding-door, 
His heart failed, for he heard, with strange alarms, 
The boisterous laughter of the men-at-arms, 
And all the vaulted chambers roar and ring 
With the mock plaudits of "Long live the King!" 



SELECTIONS 151 

Next morning, waking with the day 's first beam, 
He said within himself, ' ' It was a dream ! ' ' 
But the straw rustled as he turned his head, 
There were the cap and bells beside his bed, 
Around him rose the bare, discolored walls, 
Close by, the steeds were champing in their stalls, 
And in the corner, a revolting shape, 
Shivering and chattering sat the wretched ape. 
It was no dream ; the world he loved so much 
Had turned to dust and ashes at his touch ! 

Days came and went ; and now returned again 

To Sicily the old Saturnian reign; 

Under the Angel's goverance benign 

The happy island danced with corn and wine, 

And deep within the mountain 's burning breast 

Enceladus, the giant, was at rest. 

Meanwhile King Robert yielded to his fate, 
Sullen and silent and disconsolate, 
Dressed in the motley garb that Jesters wear, 
With look bewildered and a vacant stare, 
Close shaven above the ears, as monks are shorn, 
By courtiers mocked, by pages laughed to scorn, 
His only friend the ape, his only food 
What others left, — he still was unsubdued. 
And when the Angel met him on his way, 
And half in earnest, half in jest, would say, 
Sternly, though tenderly, that he might feel 
The velvet scabbard held a sword of steel, 
: Art thou the King?" the passion of his woe 
Burst from him in resistless overflow, 
And lifting high his forehead he would fling 
The haughty answer back, "I am, I am the King!" 

Almost three years were ended ; when there came 
Ambassadors of great repute and name 
From Valmond, Emperor of Allemaine, 
Unto King Robert, saying that Pope Urbane 



152 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

By letters summons them forthwith to come 

On Holy Thursday to his city of Rome. 

The Angel with great joy received his guests, 

And gave them presents of embroidered vests, 

And velvet mantlets with rich ermine lined, 

And rings and jewels of the rarest kind. 

Then he departed with them o'er the sea 

Into the lovely land of Italy, 

Whose loveliness was more resplendent made 

By the mere passing of that cavalcade, 

With plumes, and cloaks, and housings, and the stir 

Of jeweled bridle and of golden spur. 

And lo, among the menials, in mock state, 

Upon a piebald steed, with shambling gait, 

His cloak of fox-tails flapping in the wind, 

The solemn ape demurely perched behind, 

King Robert rode, making huge merriment 

In all the country towns through which they went. 

The Pope received them with great pomp and blare 
Of bannered trumpets, on Saint Peter's square, 
Giving his benediction and embrace, 
Fervent, and full of apostolic grace. 

While with congratulations and with prayers 
He entertained the Angel unawares, 
Robert, the Jester, bursting through the crowd, 
Into their presence rushed, and cried aloud, 
"I am the King! Look and behold in me 
Robert, your brother, King of Sicily ! 
This man who bears my semblance to your eyes, 
Is an imposter in a king's disguise. 
Do you not know me ? does no voice within 
Answer my cry, and say we are akin ? ' ' 
The Pope in silence, but with troubled mien, 
Gazed at the Angel's countenance serene; 
The Emperor, laughing, said, "It is strange sport 
To keep a madman for thy Fool at court ! ' ' 



SELECTIONS 153 

And the poor baffled Jester in disgrace 
Was hustled back among the populace. 

In solemn state the Holy Week went by, 

And Easter Sunday gleamed upon the sky; 

The presence of the Angel, with its light, 

Before the sun rose, made the city bright, 

And with new fervor filled the hearts of men, 

Who felt that Christ indeed has risen again. 

Even the Jester on his bed of straw, 

With haggard eyes the unwonted splendor saw ; 

He felt within a power unfelt before, 

And kneeling humbly on his chamber floor, 

He heard the rushing garments of the Lord 

Sweep through the silent air, ascending heavenward. 

And now the visit ending and once more 
Valmond returning to the Danube's shore, 
Homeward the Angel journeyed, and again 
The land was made resplendent with his train 
Flashing along the towns of Italy 
Unto Salerno, and from thence by sea. 
And when once more within Palermo's wall, 
And seated on the throne in his great hall, 
He heard the Angelus from convent towers, 
As if a better world conversed with ours, 
He beckoned to King Robert to draw nigher, 
And with a gesture bade the rest retire ; 
And when they were alone, the Angel said, 
: Art thou the King?" Then bowing down his head, 
King Robert crossed both hands upon his breast, 
And meekly answered him : ' ' Thou knowest best ! 
My sins as scarlet are; let me go hence, 
And in some cloister's school of penitence, 
Across those stones, that pave the way to heaven, 
Walk barefoot, till my guilty soul be shriven ! ' ' 

The Angel smiled, and from his radiant face 
A holy light illumined all the place, 



154 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

And through the open window, loud and clear, 
They heard the monks chant in the chapel near, 
Above the stir and tumult of the street : 

"He has put down the mighty from their seat, 
And has exalted them of low degree ! ' ' 
And through the chant a second melody 
Rose like the throbbing of a single string : 

"I am an Angel, and thou art the King!" 
King Robert, who was standing near the throne, 
Lifted his eyes, and lo ! he was alone ! 
But all appareled as in days of old, 
With ermined mantle and with cloth of gold ; 
And when his courtiers came, they found him there 
Kneeling upon the floor, absorbed in silent prayer. 

— Henry W. Longfellow. 

28. THE SONS OP THE WIDOW 

'Ave you 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor 

With a hairy gold crown on 'er 'ead ? 
She 'as ships on the foam — she 'as millions at 'ome, 

An' she pays us poor beggars in red. 
(Ow, poor beggars in red!) 
There's 'er nick on the cavalry 'orses, 

There's 'er mark on the medical stores — 
An' 'er troopers you'll find with a fair wind be'ind 

That takes us to various wars. 
(Poor beggars — barbarious wars!) 
Then 'ere's to the Widow at Windsor, 

An ' 'ere 's to the stores an ' the guns, 
The men an ' the 'orses what makes up the forces 

0' Missis Victorier's sons. 

(Poor beggars! — Victorier's sons!) 

Walk wide o' the Widow at Windsor, 

For 'alf o' creation she owns; 
We 'ave brought 'er the same with the sword an ' the flame, 

An' we've salted it down with our bones. 
(Poor beggars! — it's blue with our bones!) 



SELECTIONS 155 

the sons o' the Widow, 
Hands off o' the goods in 'er shop, 
For the Kings must come down an ' the Emperors frown 
When the Widow at Windsor says ' ' Stop ! ' ' 
(Poor beggars ! — we 're sent to say ' ' Stop ! ") 
Then 'ere 's the Lodge o ' the Widow, 

Prom the Pole to the tropics it runs — 
To the Lodge that we tile with the rank an ' the file, 
An' open in forms with the guns. 

(Poor beggars! — it's always them guns!) 

We 'ave 'eard o' the Widow at Windsor 

It 's safest to let 'er alone : 
For 'er sentries we stand by the sea an ' the land 
Wherever the bugles are blown. 

(Poor beggars! — an' don't we get blown!) 
Take 'old o' the wings o' the mornin', 

An ' flop round the earth till you 're dead ; 
But you won 't get away from the tune that they play 
To the bloomin ' old rag over 'ead. 
(Poor beggars! — it's 'ot over 'ead!) 
Then 'ere's to the sons o' the Widow, 

Wherever, 'owever they roam. 
'Ere's all they desire, an' if they require 
A speedy return to their 'ome. 

( Poor beggars ! — they '11 never see 'ome ! ) 

— Rudyard Kipling. 

29. " TOMMY" 

I went into a public- 'ouse to get a pint o' beer. 
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no redcoats here." 
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die, 
I outs into the street again, an' to myself sez I: 

it 's Tommy this, an ' Tommy that, an ' " Tommy, go away ; ' ' 

But it's " Thank you, Mister Atkins," when the band begins to 
play, 

The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play. 

it 's " Thank you, Mister Atkins, ' ' when the band begins to play. 



156 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

I went into a theater as sober as could be. 

They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn 't none for me ; 

They sent me to the gallery or round the music- 'alls, 

But when it comes to fighting Lord, they'll shove me in the stalls. 

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait out- 
side;" 

But it's "Special train for Atkins," when the trooper's on the 
tide. 

The troopship 's on the tide, my boys, the troopship 's on the tide. 

it's "Special train for Atkins," when the trooper's on the tide. 

makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep 
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an ' they 're starvation cheap ; 
An' hustlin drunken sodgers when they're goin' large a bit 
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit. 

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer 
soul?" 

But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll, 

The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll. 

It's a "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll. 

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too, 
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you ; 
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints, 
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints. 

While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall 

be'ind," 
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in 

the wind. 
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind. 
An' it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in 
the wind. 

You talk o ' better food for us, an ' schools, an ' fires, 'an ' all : 
We '11 wait for extry rations if you treat us rational, 
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face 
The Widow's uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace. 

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the 
brute!" 



SELECTIONS 157 

But it's " Savior of 'is country ' ' when the guns begin to shoot ; 
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please, 
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool — you bet that Tommy sees ! 

— Rudyard Kipling. 



30. THE BRAVEST BATTLE 1 

The bravest battle that ever was fought ! 

Shall I tell you where and when? 
On the maps of the world you will find it not 

'Twas fought by the mothers of men. 

Nay, not with cannon or battle shot, 

With sword or nobler pen ! 
Nay, not with eloquent word or thought, 

From mouths of wonderful men. 

But deep in a walled-up woman's heart, 

A woman that would not yield, 
But bravely, silently bore her part — 

Lo! there is that battlefield. 

No marshalling troop, no bivouac song; 

No banner to gleam and wave ; 
But, oh ! these battles they last so long, 

From babyhood to grave. 

Yet, faithful still as a bridge of stars, 
She fights in her walled-up town — 

Fights on and on in the endless wars ; 
Then, silent, unseen, goes down. 

ye, with banners and battle shot, 
And soldiers to shout and praise, 

1 tell you the kingliest victories fought 
Are fought in those silent ways. 



i Copyright by Harr Wagner & Co. Used by special permission of the 
publisher. 



158 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

spotless woman in a world of shame ! 

With splendid and silent scorn, 
Go back to God as white as you came, 

The kingliest warrior born. 

— Joaquin Miller. 



31. VALUES 1 

Never again will it be forgotten that Nations have souls. The 
efficiency of Germany was well-nigh flawless; but its psychology, 
its sense of soul values, was rotten, and lost them the Great War! 

The efficiency expert said to the employer of labor: "I have 
carefully and successfully analyzed the movements necessary in 
laying brick. I have simplified the process so as to eliminate every 
unessential motion. I have reduced to a minimum the muscular 
energy required. I can easily convince you of the deplorable 
waste of energy in the old go-as-you-please manner of brick-laying. 
I can absolutely promise that, if you adopt my method and require 
your men to learn it and use it according to instructions, the cost 
of brick-laying will be materially reduced, and the men will have 
shorter hours, easier work, and better pay." 

"Why, man," said the employer, "these are the very things 
which labor has been insistently demanding for these many years. 
Inability to grant them and still make a reasonable profit in my 
business as a contractor has been the cause of innumerable strikes, 
riots, and bitter discontent on the part of labor; and of lock-outs, 
importations of strike breakers and perpetual anxiety on my part. 
If you can make good on your claims, the problem of labor versus 
capital has been solved, and the world will arise and call you 
blessed ! We shall inaugurate your system at once. ' ' 

Now, as a matter of fact, the efficiency expert was entirely cor- 
rect, in every one of his statements. The work was easier, the 
hours were shortened and the amount accomplished per hour was 
so far above that attained by the old method that the employer was 
easily able to very materially increase the daily wage. The results 
were simply astonishing, and a brighter day seemed to have 
dawned. 



i Used by special permission of the author. 



SELECTIONS 159 

But, to the amazement of the world, the labor unions began to 
protest and finally put a veto on the whole scheme. 

What was the matter? I very much doubt whether the unions 
could present a coherent and plausible answer to this query. The 
men simply did not like it and wanted no more of it. 

The key to the answer to this question, and innumerable others, 
is found in the following quotation from Carlton H. Parker, the 
brilliant young economist whose untimely death was a real loss to 
the world. He says: 

''The dynamic psychology of to-day describes the present civili- 
zation as a repressive environment. For a great number of its in- 
habitants a sufficient self-expression is denied." 

Let us put it in another way. Self-expression is one of the most 
fundamental of all human instincts ; more basic than the desire for 
money, easy work, or shorter hours. Self-expression is the in- 
sistent demand of each individual soul. It is as necessary to the 
soul as breathing is to the body. 

The efficiency expert was right, just as the Kaiser was right, from 
every material standpoint. Each, however, made the fatal mistake 
of ignoring soul values. 

The Kaiser forgot that nations have souls. The efficiency expert 
forgot that workmen have souls. Be reduced them to smooth- 
running machines, wonderfully effective machines too ; but he took 
the joy and all possible pride and individuality out of their work. 
They hardly knew what was wrong, but they simply did not like it 
and finally refused it. They were, perhaps unconsciously, but 
nevertheless profoundly, wise. 

The thwarting of this basic desire, or let us call it need, of self- 
expression is the cause of most of the economic disturbances and 
unrest of to-day. It seems bound to increase with the growing 
complexity of civilization, and no mere material gain in wage or 
bodily comfort can offset it. 

This fact is well illustrated by a conversation between my mother 
and one of her proteges, a negro washerwoman who had been a 
slave. Freedom, however, had brought grinding poverty, hard 
work, and much discomfort. She stood over her washtub in her 
little tumble-down shanty, in a stifling atmosphere and surrounded 
by numerous pickaninnies, swarms of flies and dirt everywhere. 

My mother said: "Mandy, I sometimes wonder if you do not 



160 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

long for the old times when your master — who was a good man, 
you say — gave you plenty to eat, good clothes, a nice little cabin, 
and saw to it that you were comfortable and did not work too 
hard." 

"Yas-m, yas'm, Mrs. Nuttin'. Ole massa was sholy good to his 
niggahs, jess like you say. We had plenty to eat, 'nuff to wear; 
an', my Lord, I nevah worked like dis heah in all my life befo\ 
But I wouldn't go back, kase I shorely does lub my dirty little bit 
of freedom!" 

There you have the cry of the soul that is at the bottom of strikes, 
all revolutions, all industrial disturbances. And it will not down. 

This poor, ignorant black woman, toiling, sweating amidst flies, 
pickaninnies, and dirt, will not barter her pitiful little bit of free- 
dom for the food, clothing, and bodily comforts of servitude. She 
has learned something of soul values by her own bitter experience 
and she will not give them up. 

Since man first became a living soul, nay, before the cry became 
articulate, freedom, the right of self-expression has ever been the 
pearl of great price for which all men, in all ages, have been will- 
ing to barter everything, even life itself. 

Here, then, it seems to me, is the one great, overshadowing, irre- 
pressible conflict. As civilization advances and the struggle for 
life becomes fiercer and ever more complex, mass action seems more 
and more imperative. Men are forced to combine to defend their 
rights. Clans, tribes, nations, and states arise, each more complex 
than its predecessor. United action, or mass action, means laws, 
and laws mean giving up of individual rights for the common good. 
Then within the nation itself classes arise, each with interests op- 
posed to others. Guilds and trades unions become strong ; and, be- 
ing strong, are more and more aggressive, more and more arrogant. 
The laborer finds his freedom, his self-expression restricted or 
ignored by his employer, and turns for relief to his union. Here 
again he finds self-expression denied him, finds himself the slave 
of the very agency that he has created for his own protection. 

The walking delegate is as cruel, and usually more ignorant, than 
the boss he has been taught to call his enemy. The more perfect 
the machine which labor has constructed, the more complete is its 
servitude. This machine, this guild or union, takes little account 
of real soul values, although its constant crv is for freedom! In 



SELECTIONS 161 

the name of freedom the laborer must restrict his output and de- 
prive himself of the possibility of bettering his condition. He 
must admit his earning capacity by limiting his hours. He must 
do no kind of work not permitted by his union. He must be a 
machine, with no initiative, no joy in his work, no incentive to do 
good work, no soul of his own. In any event, the seemingly neces- 
sary mass action, even if it results in better wages, better hours, 
better working conditions, does not meet the need of his soul for 
self-expression, and his individuality is smothered. 

In self-defense the employers also unite for mass action or class 
action. Two mighty forces are thus created and brought face to 
face as enemies, and the deadly conflict of class against class arises 
within the nation. 

A great people, tried beyond endurance by the most autocratic 
of all emperors, throws off the yoke, slaughters its rulers, in the 
name of freedom. The most extreme and violent of the long- 
oppressed people rise to the top, and in the name of freedom in- 
augurate a rule of terror in which no vestige of freedom remains; 
and we see the Soviet Russia of to-day, a tyranny more terrible 
than that of the Czars. 

That which started out as a mass action in the sacred name of 
freedom results in the abject slavery of these same masses. Soul 
values are utterly extinct. There is no God, no religion, no family 
rights, no individual rights; nothing but brute force reigning by 
bloody terror alone. 

Have we come to an impasse ? Does the complexity of advancing 
civilization demand class action, and does class action demand the 
smothering of self-expression? 

Does the cry of freedom make imperative mass action against 
the oppressor only to lead a people into worse slavery in which the 
soul of a nation is crucified? 

Your speaker is no sociologist and knows little about political 
economy ; and you are probably amazed at his temerity in dis- 
cussing matters rightly belonging to these fields; he is simply a 
biologist. But he begs to call your attention to the fact often for- 
gotten that biology lies at the basis of all matters pertaining to 
living things, including man himself. Its laws underlie, are the sub- 
structure, in fact, of sociology, political economy, and even philos- 
ophy. Any system that ignores or violates these laws is fore- 



162 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

doomed to failure just as surely as man is an animal and a product 
of evolution, indeed its supreme achievement. 

I believe that biology has a message that may be of value to our 
brothers in the field of sociology and political economy. It seems 
to me possible to point out the fundamental biological error that 
has led to disaster in the well-meant attempts at adjustment in the 
labor situation, as well as the underlying fallacy in the various 
forms of socialism, communism, and even the tragedy of Bolshevik 
Russia. 

As a biologist it seems to me possible to point out the seat of dis- 
ease in the body politic, to diagnose the trouble. The remedy lies 
in the province of political economy, sociology, and religion, a 
realm into which the present speaker would not feel justified in 
further intruding. 

All progress in the evolution of living things is based upon what 
is called individual variation. In the lower forms this variation is 
almost purely physical, and the selecting out of these favorable 
variations by the process of what Darwin has so aptly called Nat- 
ural Selection has resulted, we believe, in the better fitting of the 
organisms to their environment, and continual improvement, or 
evolution. 

Most of the lower forms of life, possibly even the lowest, exhibit 
certain characteristic activities which constitute the "behavior" of 
animals. There is individual variation in behavior as well as in 
other matters, and behavior is improved and more nicely adjusted 
to the environment and becomes more complicated along with the 
organism itself; and this adjustment is done by natural selection 
favoring those animals which exhibit an improvement over the 
average of the behavior of their kind. Even the lower forms, there- 
fore, have an individualism not only physical but psychical. And 
Nature encourages this individualism by carefully selecting and 
preserving the best. She has never encouraged her children to cut 
down their behavior to the average level of that of the species, but 
has always placed a premium on superior behavior; or, if you 
please, superior individualism. 

Man is subject to the same laws as his more lowly brothers, and 
he, too, has developed a behavior that is vastly more complex, but 
still not differing greatly in kind, than that of lower forms. There 
is not only physical behavior, but also psychical behavior. Indi- 



SELECTIONS 163 

vidual intellectual differences are perhaps the most variable of all, 
and they constitute the material from which improvement of the 
race must come in the future as well as in the past. 

In the sense employed in this discussion the soul of man is his 
essential self, or ego, the sum of all his mental and moral attributes 
including those small but really important individual character- 
istics which go to make the real man, or self. As I said before, 
self-expression is one of the strongest, most primitive and most im- 
perative of our so-called ' ' instincts ' ' ; and our racial progress thus 
far has been based on the selection and preservation of those types 
of ego best fitted to man's environment. They are humanity's most 
valuable asset, its main reliance in the past, its real hope for the 
future ! 

Now the fallacy, the basal error, involved in such efficiency 
schemes as we have described, trades unionism, autocracy, com- 
munism, socialism, and bolshevism, is that they all try to level man 
down to the average, instead of encouraging and utilizing to the 
utmost the expression of individualism, or what Parker called 
1 ' self-expression ' '. They have denied one of the most fundamental 
and vital instincts and violated one of the most important of all 
natural laws, the law of Natural Selection. They have reckoned 
with every element in their problem except the most important and 
most vital of them all — soul values ! 

In my opinion this is enough to explain the more or less com- 
plete failure of all of these systems, and until soul value, self- 
expression, is recognized as of primary importance, the problem is 
hopeless from the strictly biological standpoint. 

Young men and women of the graduating class: 

Each one of you stands to-day in the market-place of the world 
to make an investment, and that investment is your life. You can- 
not withhold it ; you must spend it in some way. Your birthright 
is your self, your soul. Will you sell it for a mess of pottage, or 
will you invest shrewdly, thoughtfully, wisely, with an aim to se- 
cure a return in real values, in soul values? 

It is my firm belief that each one of you, with few exceptions, 
can get from life the thing that you most desire; that you can, 
within reasonable limits, attain your highest ambition — if you will 
pay the price. 



164 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

Any one of you can become wealthy, if that is the supreme good 
for which you will give up everything else. You can attain power, 
if you will pay the price that the world demands for power. You 
stand before the bargain counter of the world. In what will you 
invest your life ? 

I venture to suggest a few good lines of investment which will 
return dividends in real soul values. 

Invest in a sound body ; for it is the only efficient instrument of 
a sound mind. 

Invest in friendship; for the friendless man, though a million- 
aire, is but a pauper. ' ' The friends thou hast, and their adoption 
tried, grip them to thy soul with hooks of steel. ' ' 

Invest in love; for as Drummond has said, "Love is the greatest 
thing in the world." For this investment, if made wisely, will 
secure for you a happiness that is nearer Heaven than any other 
on earth. 

Invest in congenial work ; for it is better to make a living at what 
you enjoy than to secure wealth in doing what you dislike. Then 
face your work with courage and confidence and remember that 
the most notable successes are achieved by doing that which men 
say cannot be done! 

Invest in service; for that is the secret of contentment and real 
soul power. "Whosoever of you will be the chief est, let him be 
the servant of all." 

Invest in religion; for only "the fool hath said in his heart, 
'There is no God'." 

And finally, I charge you in the name of your Alma Mater, to 
see to it that you are your own master, that your life expresses 
your very self ! "To thine own self be true. ' ' 

See to it that, whatever befalls, you can stand erect before your 
fellow-men and say : " I am the master of my fate. I am the Cap- 
tain of my soul!" 

And when the westering sun gilds the evening of your life, you 
will be content; for you have bartered wisely, and have gathered 
imperishable wealth — the riches of the soul. 

— C. C. Nutting. 



SELECTIONS 165 

32. ACRES OF DIAMONDS 1 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — The title of this lecture originated away 
back in 1869. When going down the Tigris River, we hired a 
guide from Bagdad to show us down to the Arabian Gulf. That 
guide whom we employed resembled the barbers we find in Amer- 
ica. That is, he resembled the barbers in certain mental character- 
istics. He thought it was not onty his duty to guide us down the 
river, but also to entertain us with stories; curious and weird, 
ancient and modern, strange and familiar; many of them I have 
forgotten, and I am glad I have. But there was one which I recall 
tonight. The guide grew irritable over my lack of appreciation, 
and as he led my camel by the halter he introduced his story by 
saying : ' ' This is a tale I reserve for my particular friends. " So I 
then gave him my close attention. He told me that there once 
lived near the shore of the river Indus, toward which we were then 
traveling, an ancient Persian by the name of Al Hafed. He said 
that Al Hafed owned a large farm, with orchards, grain fields and 
gardens; that he had money at interest, had a beautiful wife and 
lovely children, and was a wealthy and contented man. Contented 
because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented. 

One day there visited this old Persian farmer one of those 
ancient Buddhist priests, one of the wise men of the East, who sat 
down by Al Hafed 's fireside and told the old farmer how this 
world was made. He told him that this world was once a great 
bank of fog, and that the Almighty thrust His finger into this bank 
of fog, and began slowly to move his finger around, and then in- 
creased the speed of his finger until he whirled this bank of fog 
into a solid ball of fire ; and as it went rolling through the universe, 
burning its way through other banks of fog, it condensed the 
moisture, until it fell in floods of rain upon the internal fires, 
bursting the cooling crust, threw up the mountains, and the hills, 
and the valleys of this wonderful world of ours. "And," said the 
old priest, "if this internal melted mass burst forth and cooled 
very quickly it became granite, if it cooled more slowly it became 
copper ; if it cooled less quickly, silver ; less quickly, gold ; and after 
gold, diamonds were made. ' ' Said the old priest, ' ' A diamond is a 
congealed drop of sunlight. ' ' That statement is literally true. 



1 Used by permission. 



166 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

And the old priest said another very curious thing. He said that 
a diamond was the last and the highest of God's mineral creations, 
as a woman is the last and highest of God's animal creations. That 
is the reason, I suppose, why the two have such a liking for each 
other. 

The old priest told Al Hafed if he had a diamond the size of his 
thumb, he could purchase a dozen farms like his. ' ' And, ' ' said the 
priest, "if you had a handful of diamonds, you could purchase 
kingdoms, and place your children upon thrones, through the in- 
fluence of your great wealth." 

Al Hafed heard all about the diamonds that night, and went to 
bed a poor man. He wanted a whole mine of diamonds. Early in 
the morning he sought the priest and awoke him. Well, I know, by 
experience, that a priest is very cross when awakened early in the 
morning. 

Al Hafed said: "Will you tell me where I can find diamonds?" 
The priest said : ' ' Diamonds ? What do you want of diamonds ? ' ' 
Said Al Hafed: "I want to be immensely rich." 
"Well," said the priest, "if you want diamonds, all you have to 
do is go and find them, and then you will have them." 
' ' But, ' ' said Al Hafed, ' ' I don 't know where to go. ' ' 
"If you will find a river that runs over white sands, between 
high mountains, in those white sands you will always find dia- 
monds," answered the priest. 

"But," asked Al Hafed, "do you believe there is such a river?" 
"Plenty of them; all you have to do is just go where they are." 
"Well," said Al Hafed, "I will go." 

So he sold his farm; collected his money that was at interest; 
left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search 
of diamonds. 

He began his search, very properly, at the Mountains of the 
Moon. Afterwards he came around into Palestine, and then wan- 
dered on into Europe. At last, when his money was all gone and 
he was in rags, poverty and wretchedness, he stood on the shore at 
Barcelonia, in Spain, when a great tidal wave swept through the 
pillars of Hercules ; and the poor, starving, afflicted stranger could 
not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming 
tide; and he sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this 
life again. 



SELECTIONS 167 

When the old guide had told me that story, he stopped the camel 
I was riding upon and went back to arrange the baggage on an- 
other camel, and I had an opportunity to muse over his story. And 
I asked myself this question : ' ' Why did this old guide reserve this 
story for his particular friends?" But when he came back and 
took up the camel's halter once more, I found that was the first 
story I ever heard wherein the hero was killed in the first chapter. 
For he went on into the second chapter, just as though there had 
been no break. 

Said he: "The man who purchased Al Hafed's farm, led his 
camel out into the garden to drink, and as the animal put his nose 
into the shallow waters of the garden brook, Al Hafed's successor 
noticed a curious light flash from the white sands of the stream. 
Keaching in he pulled out a black stone containing a strange eye of 
light. He took it into the house as a curious pebble and putting it 
on the mantel that covered the central fire went his way and forgot 
all about it. 

"But not long after that that same old priest came to visit Al 
Hafed's successor. The moment he opened the door he noticed the 
flash of light. He rushed to the mantel and said : — 

" 'Here is a diamond! Here is a diamond! Has Al Hafed 
returned ? ' 

" 'Oh, no, Al Hafed has not returned and we have not heard 
from him since he went away, and that is not a diamond. It is 
nothing but a stone we found out in our garden. ' 

' ' ' But, ' said the priest, ' I know a diamond when I see it. I teLl 
you that is a diamond.' 

"Then together they rushed out into the garden. They stirred. 
up the white sands with their fingers, and there came up other 
more beautiful, more valuable gems than the first. 

"Thus," said the guide, — and friends, it is historically true, — 
"was discovered the diamond mines of Golconda, the most valuable 
diamond mines in the history of the ancient world." 

Well, when the guide had added the second chapter to his story, 
he then took off his Turkish red cap, and swung it in the air to call 
my special attention to the moral; those Arab guides always have 
morals to their stories. 

He said to me: "Had Al Hafed remained at home, and dug in 
his own cellar, or underneath his own wheat field, instead of wretch- 



168 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

edness, starvation, poverty, and death in a strange land, he would 
have had acres of diamonds." 

Acres of diamonds ! For every acre of that old farm, yes, every 
shovelful, afterwards revealed the gems which have since decorated 
the crowns of monarchs. 

When the guide had added the moral to this story, I saw why he 
reserved it for his particular friends. But I didn't tell him that I 
could see it. It was that mean old Arab's way of going around a 
thing, and saying indirectly what he didn 't dare say directly ; that 
in his private opinion "There was a certain young man traveling 
down the Tigris River, who might better be at home, in America. ' ' 

— Russell Herrman Conwell. 



APPENDIX 



1. LANGUAGE 1 

Theory that Language is a Special Creation. 

The question of the origin of language is a question which has 
been much discussed and variously answered from the earliest times. 
Language is so distinctly a human function that it has often been 
regarded as a special endowment of man, given to him by special 
creation. 

The Special Creation Theory Gives Way to Naturalistic Expla- 
nations. 

The special creation theory of the origin of language ignores, 
however, certain facts which are too obvious to be set aside. It 
ignores the fact that animals have the ability to make certain vocal 
sounds which they utilize for purposes of communication with each 
other. "We cannot explain how it is that animals have modes of 
expression so closely related to human language without, at the 
some time, recognizing the natural origin of language itself. Fur- 
thermore, the processes of human expression are constantly under- 
going changes and developments which are so natural and so def- 
inite in their character that it seems improbable that language ever 
failed to exhibit development. If the principles under which lan- 
guage as we know it is developing, can be ascertained, it is reason- 
able to project these laws back of the historical period and to 
assume that the beginnings of language were also under the regular 
laws of development. The creation theory has, therefore, gradually 
given way to various theories which attempt to give a naturalistic 
explanation of language. 

The Imitation Theory Only a Partial Explanation. 

It has sometimes been held that language originated from the 
tendency to imitate sounds. This theory, while it would explain 
certain of the special forms of words, cannot give any adequate 
account of the way in which an imitating individual develops the 
power to use his imitations for purposes of speech. There are a 



i From Psychology by Professor Charles Hubbard Judd, copyright by Ginn 
and Co. Used by special permission of author and holders of copyright. 

171 



172 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

number of different animals that are capable of a wide range of 
imitation, but they have never developed a language, as has man. 
This is clear evidence that the essence of language is not to be found 
in imitation, but rather in the use to which the imitative power 
is put. 

The Interjection Theory Also Partial. 

It has also been suggested that language developed out of the 
interjections which man naturally used in his most primitive stage 
of development. If he was astonished by any sudden stimulation, 
he naturally gave forth ejaculations in response to the sudden ex- 
citation. These ejaculations, it is said, came gradually to have the 
character of the situations to which they belonged and ultimately 
to serve the purposes of communication. Here again, the objection 
to the theory is not that it seems improbable that man began with 
simple forms of expression, but the theory does not explain how 
these simple forms of expression acquired a meaning and impor- 
tance which they did not have at the beginning. What is needed, 
rather than a formal description of the first expressions used by 
primitive man, is a consistent psychological explanation of how the 
ejaculations came to have significance for mental life and to serve 
as a vehicle for elaborate thought processes. 

Language Has Its Boots in Natural Emotional Expressions and 
Their Imitation. 

The psychological explanation of language must begin with a gen- 
eral reference to the statements made in earlier chapters. Every 
sensory stimulation arouses some form of bodily activity. The 
muscles of the organs of circulation are the muscles of the limbs, as 
well as other internal and external muscles, are constantly engaged 
in making responses to external stimuli. Among the muscles of 
the body which with the others are involved in expressive activities 
are the muscles which control the organs of respiration. There can 
be no stimulation of any kind which does not affect more or less the 
character of the movements of inspiration and expiration. In 
making these general statements, we find no necessity for dis- 
tinguishing between the animals and man; so far as the general 
facts of relation between sensations and expression are concerned, 
they have like characteristics. That an air-breathing animal should 
produce sounds through irregularities in its respiratory movements 



APPENDIX 173 

when it is excited by an external stimulus, especially if that stim- 
ulus is violent, is quite as natural as that its hair should rise when 
it is afraid or that its muscles should tremble when it is aroused 
to anger or to flight. 

Activity Becomes a Means of Communication First Through Imi- 
tation. 

The important step in the development of languge is the acquire- 
ment of the ability to use the movements of the vocal cords for 
purposes other than those of individual emotional expression. The 
acquirement of this ability is a matter of long evolution and de- 
pends in its first stages upon imitation. The function of imitation 
as a means of communication between animals appears as soon as 
animals begin to live in packs or herds or other social groups. 

The Imitative Communication of Animals and Man Are of Great 
Variety. 

So far as communication through imitation is concerned, there 
is no reason why attention should be confined exclusively to the 
forms of activity which result in sounds. All animals imitate the 
activities of other members of their species on a very large scale. 
The stampede of a herd of cattle is an excellent illustration of 
the importance of the tendency toward imitation. The frightened 
animal which starts the stampede does not consciously purpose to 
communicate its fright to the other members of the herd; it is per- 
forming a natural act of its individual life. Incidentally, it affects 
all those about it by arousing in them a violent form of imitative 
activity. The stampeding herd may have no consciousness whatever 
of the original cause of fear in one of its members ; the real cause of 
the stampede and of the resulting excitement in the herd is the 
example of the one frightened animal. Thus we see that the activity 
of an animal takes on, because of the re-action of its social environ- 
ment, a significance which the original act never could have had 
unless it had been imitated. 

The Value of Sound as Means of Social Communication. 

What is true of activity in general is true of activities which 
result in sounds. The sound produced by the activities of the vocal 
cords can impress itself readily upon the ears of some other animal, 
more readily by far than the visual impression of trembling or of 



174 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

general muscular tension. If, now, the animal which hears the 
sound has itself produced this sound or one closely resembling it in 
quality and intensity, there will be a natural tendency for the 
sound stimulation to arouse in the second animal a sympathetic 
response. Witness the tendency of all of the dogs in a community 
to bark together or of all the roosters to begin crowing together when 
one gives the signal. The result of imitating the sound will be to 
throw the imitating animal into an emotional state very similar to 
that of the animal which first made the noise. This result will be 
more likely to follow if the two animals are closely related in their 
organization and types of activity. There will be relatively less 
tendency to sympathize with an animal of entirely different organ- 
ization and habits, for the activity aroused through imitation in the 
listening animal will not agree in character with the activity of the 
animal which sets the example. Thus, one can judge from his own 
experience that there is very little possibility of arousing in a 
human being the exact state which appears in dogs or cats through 
imitation of the sounds which they produce. In general, imitation 
of sound is valuable as a means of arousing sympathy only between 
animals sufficiently related to each other to have similar modes of 
producing sound. 

Animal Language Communicates Only Attitudes. 

Given the similarity of organization which makes imitated sounds 
significant, we have a type of communication provided, which is 
widely utilized in the animal world. The food calls and the danger 
signals of birds are significant to other members of the flock. Such 
calls have definite natural relations to the organized responses of all 
members of the species. It is to be noted that these calls do not 
constitute a language in the sense in which human sounds constitute 
a language, for the bird calls are incapable of conveying definite 
ideas, such as ideas of the kind of food or the particular kind of 
danger discovered by the animal which makes the sound. The 
sounds serve merely to arouse certain attitudes. An animal can fly 
away and can induce in its fellows a like tendency to fear and 
flight, by means of cries which in the history of each member of the 
flock, have been associated with fear, but the animal can go no 
further in its communications than to express its own natural 
tendencies and corresponding attitudes. 



APPENDIX 175 

The First Stages of Human Articulation Are Like Animal Cries. 

There are stages of human infancy which are closely related to 
the stages of animal life thus far described. The human infant 
does not at first make sounds as the result of any conscious desire 
to communicate its feelings to those about it, much less does it use 
its sounds for verbal discussion of the details of its conscious experi- 
ences. The infant makes noises exactly as it swings its arms and 
legs, because the muscular contractions which produce these noises 
are instinctive motor expressions related through heredity to the 
stimuli which arouse them. 

Later there appears a strong tendency to imitate others of its 
own kind, and this imitation may serve to put the infant in some 
contact with its social environment, and give it a medium of com- 
munication comparable in character to that which we find in ani- 
mals. This is not language, however, for imitation alone is not 
enough to develop language. Further processes must take place 
before the full development is effected. 

Articulations Are Selected from the Sum of Possible Activities. 

While imitation applies to many different forms of activity, such 
as those of the limbs or face, a moment 's consideration will make it 
clear that the activities which produce sounds have a number of 
unique advantages as vehicles of imitative communication. The 
ability to produce sounds depends largely upon the animal itself and 
very little upon external conditions. Contrast sound with visual 
impressions. Visual impressions are cut off in the dark; they are 
cut off by intervening objects, and by a turning of the head of the 
observer. Sounds travel wherever there is air ; they are as easy to 
produce in darkness as in daylight; they can easily be varied in 
intensity. For these reasons they come to be the chief means of 
social communication, even among the animals. The result is that 
the vocal cords and the ability to discriminate sounds are highly 
developed long before the development of language proper. 

Sounds Became Language in the Proper Sense Through Association 
with Ideas. 

The advance wmich human language makes beyond animal com- 
munication consists in the fact that human language relates sounds 
to ideas as well as to emotional attitudes. How man came to take 



176 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

this step cannot be understood apart from the general fact that in 
every respect human mental development was and is of the idea- 
tional, rather than of the direct perceptual type. 

The Ability to Use Language and to Deal with Ideas Developed 
Together. 

The inquiry is involved at this point in a perplexing circle. 
Human mental processes as we know them are intimately related 
to language. Even when we think about our own most direct ex- 
periences, we use words. When we enlarge our associations, we 
usually do so with the aid of words. Yet these words do not seem 
at all explicable except when we assume complex ideational pro- 
cesses as the necessary conditions for their development and inter- 
pretation. Did human mental advance result from the development 
of language, or did language result from the development of asso- 
ciational processes? The only answer to this question is to say 
that language and ideational processes developed together and are 
necessary to each other. So long as animals were absorbed in direct 
responses to the demands of their environment, their mental com- 
plexes were of a direct, primitive type, and stimulations issued into 
direct motor channels with relatively little possibility of ideational 
organization. 

As soon as a type of response developed which was indirect, there 
was a complete change in the general mode of bodily and conscious 
organization. Attention was turned to many objects in the environ- 
ment which had at an earlier stage little or no value for individual 
life, because there was no appropriate mode of direct activity wiiich 
could be applied to them. Speech is a universal mode of expressive 
reaction and makes it possible for one who possesses it to react in 
discriminating fashion upon anything. Thus, if one has different 
names for two objects which resemble each other closely, he will be 
aided in discriminating them through the use of the different verbal 
reactions to them. Speech is, accordingly both a product of ideation 
and an aid to its development. 

Muscular Activities Involved in Articulation Are Indirect. 

Nothing can emphasize the fact that language is related to in- 
direct ideational processes more than the selection of the vocal cords 
for the execution of speech reactions. The vocal cords are, more 
than any other active organs, wholly useless for direct adaptations. 



APPENDIX 177 

Those natural expressive gestures which were common among primi- 
tive men very soon gave way as means of communication after the 
development of movements of articulation. The reason for this is 
clear in view of the fact that the hands and grosser muscles are 
constantly in use in the direct practical activities of life. When 
two individuals wish to communicate with each other, it is often 
extremely inconvenient to suspend all other activity, to lay down 
what one may be carrying, to come where one may be clearly seen, 
for the purpose of holding a parley. The vocal cords, on the other 
hand, are not required for the practical purposes of life. They are 
easily disconnected in their action from the general mass of the 
muscles and, therefore, very naturally became the organs for a 
system of responses indirect in character and value as compared 
with the practical responses of the other muscles. 

Language a Development of Natural Tendencies. 

When human language is thus viewed as a selection of the activ- 
ities ' of the vocal cords from the sum total of the expressive 
activities, and as a series of associations of articulations and sounds 
with ideational processes, it becomes evident that the studies of 
language are at once placed upon a naturalistic foundation. The 
various forms of articulation may be studied exactly as other forms 
of reaction are studied. The habits of articulation in an individual 
or a race are recognized as matters of motor coordination. The 
special forms of words are matters of accidental associations and 
may depend on the greatest variety of circumstances. Thus, it is 
equally possible for a word to originate in the imitation of a sound 
produced by an animal or by another human being, or in an ejacu- 
lation w T hich is a purely personal reaction. The source of the sound 
is of no great importance; the association into which the sound is 
taken up is what renders it significant. The essential conclusion for 
psychology is that language is a system of indirect social forms of 
reaction, associated with complex ideational processes. 

—Charles H. Judd. 



178 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

2. THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE i 

Distinctive Features. — Thought and language combine ideational 
and kinesthetic elements. To this extent they resemble volition. 
They differ essentially from volition and from all other mental 
states so far discussed in two distinctive characteristics; (1) Their 
ideational components are symbolic. (2) Their development is due 
almost wholly to the social environment ; that is, they arise through 
the interaction of individuals with one another. 

A further characteristic is that thought and language develop 
together, each furnishing material for the other. Thought is an 
outgrowth of imagery due to the addition of kinesthetic elements, 
while language is an outgrowth of conation with the addition of 
symbolic ideational elements. In thought the kinesthetic element 
is less prominent than the ideational, and in language the ideational 
element is less focalized than the kinesthetic. Thought and lan- 
guage are complementary states. Increased definiteness of thought 
leads to more definite expression in language, while a new verbal 
symbol is apt to make for greater precision of thought. 

Symbolic Character. — In discussing imagery we found that a 
memory image is virtually a reproduction of some perception; a 
general image is a mental state reproducing certain characters 
which are common to a number of similar perceptions; images of 
the remaining types reproduce characters drawn from several per- 
ceptions which may or may not be similar. A distinguishing mark 
of all imagery is that it reproduces certain features which have 
previously appeared in perception. 

.Various elements which were not in the original perception of an 
object become associated with the image. We may regard a thing 
as beautiful, and a S3 r stemic element is thereby attached to the idea. 
If we picture it as to be avoided or acted upon by ourselves, the 
image is transformed into a purpose or volition. In the same way 
it comes about that certain purely arbitrary kinesthetic elements 
called names attached to images of every sort. In adult life the 
idea of my chum is not a mere image; the name "Walter" is an 
integral part of the experience. The general idea of the leading 
domestic animal is not simply a general image, but an image to 
which the name "dog" is attached. 

A name is essentially a kinesthetic experience, though auditory 
and visual elements are usually included with the motor compo- 



i From Human Psychology by Professor Howard C. Warren, pp. 314-329. 
Copyright 1919 by the author. Used by special permission of the author. 



APPENDIX 179 

nents. Names are first spoken or written or gestured; they are 
associated with images or perceptions, and in the course of time 
they become integral parts of the ideational experience. We call 
them symbolic or arbitrary, because they rarely belong to the orig- 
inal perceptual experience ; they are not part of the external objects 
which stimulate us. 

Arbitrary kinesthetic elements similar in sort to names are at- 
tached to other mental states and to their components. The whole 
group of arbitrary kinesthetic associates are called words, and the 
combination of words with ideational elements is called language or 
thought, according as the kinesthetic or ideational components are 
the more prominent. 

For reasons that will appear presently, these arbitrary compo- 
nents tend in the course of time to become focalized. They come 
to be practically the whole material of the mental state : — the image 
components which reproduce the characters of the external object 
remain only as marginal accompaniments. The experience is no 
longer a picture or replica of the object, but a symbol, which may 
bear no resemblance to it whatsoever. 

Social Origin. — The genesis and growth of language is due en- 
tirely to the social relations among members of the species. The 
sole utility of language lies in the fact that it furnishes a medium 
for communication between one individual and another. When I 
utter the word dog or any other word, it is in order to arouse in 
some other individual an idea or series of ideas corresponding to 
my own thoughts. It is safe to assume that language would not 
have developed if mankind had not lived in groups. 

Thought is not so essentially social. We think to ourselves in 
symbolic terms, without reference to the effect on others. But it is 
difficult to see how thought could have developed without language 
— that is, without a social environment. Apart from social condi- 
tions there is nothing in mental life to make the symbolic element 
of an idea vivid or focal. Objects, situations, and events furnish 
the original stimuli. Ideational states are determined by the char- 
acter of the sensations which these stimuli arouse. Some compo- 
nents in the ideas become increasingly focal, but the vivid elements 
are pictures of external things or occurrences — not symbols. The 
non-social idea of "dog" is the dog's general appearance, his bark, 
his bite, his characteristic modes of behavior; all of these are sche- 



180 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

matic reproductions of actual sensations arising from ''dog- 
stimuli". 

The need for a name is social. We have not always a dog to 
point to; we can imitate his bark, but not (satisfactorily) his hunt- 
ing activities. One of the older theories of the origin of language 
was based on man's imitation of barking, crowing, mewing, etc. 
This theory meets difficulties when it comes to the naming of fish, 
fruit, and other "voiceless" or inactive things. To designate such 
objects to other persons, and to indicate events and human activ- 
ities, arbitrary gestures or sounds seem to have been required from 
the start. Imitative (onomatopoeic) names tend to become conven- 
tionalized also. Since these kinesthetic symbols are reproducible, 
they are highly useful for communication between man and man. 
They are easier to focalize and control than images. Through repe- 
tition they attain greater prominence as components in the idea- 
tional states. Hence the symbolic experience of thought has tended 
more and more to supplant imagery in civilized life. 

The history of the human race indicates that man rarely invents 
words except under stress of social communication. Things, crea- 
tures, and qualities which have social significance are the first to 
receive names. The degree of social development of a race may be 
roughly estimated by the size and character of its vocabulary. 

Mutual Dependence. — It is evident from this that thought and 
language are mutually dependent. The demands of social com- 
munication lead to symbolic naming, which takes the form of 
kinesthetic experiences. These kinesthetic symbols attach to the 
ideas and transform them into a new kind of mental state. In the 
type of behavior called communication the kinesthetic component 
is stronger than the ideational, and the mental state is language. 
When the same symbol occurs without communicative expression 
the ideational component is stronger than the kinesthetic, and the 
mental state is thought. 

The growth of each one of these states means the growth of the 
other. New words add precision to thought. Growth of definite- 
ness in thought leads to the appearance of new words in the 
language. 

It is perhaps too sweeping to say that thought could not arise or 
did not arise in any race or individual without language, or that 
language never appeared without symbolic ideas. The examination 
of known races leads to the conclusion, however, that the develop- 



APPENDIX 181 

ment of either of these states beyond a rudimentary stage depends 
upon the cooperation of the other. 

Types of Language. — The chief types of language are gesture, 
speech, and graphic record. 1 Facial expression is more primitive 
than any of these, but it is confined to emotional states and does 
not seem to have attained any symbolic development. Such com- 
municative expressions as winking an eye or contorting the face 
may be regarded as facial gestures. 

Gesture language is probably more primitive than speech. It 
arose from the practice of pointing to objects or waving the arms 
to arouse attention. In time some of these gestures assumed a con- 
ventionalized form. Certain movements of the hand or head came 
to denote fish, fruit, fire, cooking; pairs of opposite movements 
came to signify assent and dissent, or ' ' come here ' ' and ' ' go away ' '. 
A developed form of gesture language is used in civilized com- 
munities among the deaf. Otherwise it occupies a secondary posi- 
tion, being superseded almost wholly by speech. 

Vocal expression (speech) is so much more convenient than ges- 
turing that it has developed far beyond the latter. One can readily 
talk when engaged in fishing, plowing, etc., while gestures disturb 
these occupations. One can listen to oral conversation without 
turning the head; it is not so easy to watch the plow and a com- 
panion 's gestures at the same time. The ears are always open ; we 
can secure a man's attention by speech without stepping in front 
of him or seizing hold of him. 2 In the sick room or in No Man's 
Land gestures are more effective than speech. But in normal con- 
ditions of life speech has generally far greater advantage. 

The graphic form of language is used in civilized communities to 
supplement speech. It consists in making permanent marks or 
impressions upon stone, bricks, papyrus, and paper. In the older 
graphic languages the records were rude pictures of objects; later 
these pictures became conventionalized, as in Chinese, or each 
graphic unit symbolized a syllabic sound, as in syllabary Japanese. 
In the graphic language of modern western races each symbol 
(letter) represents an elementary vocal sound, either consonant or 
vowel. The whole group of different letters comprise the alphabet. 



i As modes of behavior they are called gesturing, speaking (or talking), 
writing. 

2 The button-holing habit is possibly a survival of the primitive gesture stage. 



182 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

The letters of the alphabet symbolize vocal sounds which are them- 
selves arbitrary symbols. 

There are several varieties of graphic language, whose distinc- 
tion is more important from the social than from the purely psycho- 
logical standpoint. Besides ordinary handwriting we may mention 
printing, typewriting, telegraphy, and phonography. In all these 
forms the characteristic feature is the permanent record, which 
makes it possible for an individual to communicate with others at 
great distances and after long intervals of time. In fact, the chief 
role of graphic language is to extend the range of communication 
in space and time. Graphic language, like gesture language, is 
received visually, except the phonographic variety, which is audi- 
tory. 

Nearly all graphic languages are asymmetrical. In the Greek 
and Latin alphabets the record always runs from left to right, in 
Hebrew and Arabic from right to left, in Chinese from top to bot- 
tom. The order is practically never reversed, nor are individual 
letters turned around. 1 

1 ' Mirror-script ' ' is unintelligible to most individuals who attempt 
to read it, and it is equally hard to write. Experiment shows that 
this difficulty is due merely to long fixation of habit; one can in 
time learn to write and read reversed script quite readily. 

The asymmetry of graphic language is due to the preference of 
one hand (usually the right) over the other in intelligent acts; and 
this is in some way connected with the greater development of cer- 
tain higher centers in one hemisphere of the brain. The speech 
center in most individuals is located in the left hemisphere, which 
controls movements in the right side of the body. The origin of 
the specific direction of writing may possibly be connected with the 
instrument used: a quill is more easily pulled along; a chisel is 
more effective when pushed ; a brush is more naturally swept down 
toward the writer. 

Comprehension and Reading. — Communication is a two-sided af- 



i By way of exception the Egyptian hieroglyphics run either left-right, 
right-left, or down the page. As the characters are mostly human or animal 
forms one can determine at a glance how to read the record — we meet the 
figures face to face, unless the characters run in columns, in which case we 
read downward. Egyptian writing (and reading) as a motor process is there- 
fore horizontally symmetrical, though the separate characters are nearly all 
asymmetrical. 



APPENDIX , 183 

fair. It is not completed, like other types of behavior, when the 
reaction or response is made. It involves a later receptive process 
on the part of another being. The spoken word produces complex 
sound waves, which serve as a verbal stimulus to the auditory re- 
ceptor. The central and conscious effect on a second person is very 
different from that of other compound clangs. The sensory com- 
ponents of the experience are very indistinct. They serve mainly 
to arouse an ideational state, which is a thought similar to the 
thought experienced by the first person in speaking the word. The 
mental process of receiving verbal stimuli derived from speech or 
gesture is comprehension?- It results in an ideational state which 
is usually a thought, though at times it may be an image. 

The graphic record produces a visual stimulus. The receiving 
process is much the same as in comprehension, except that the suc- 
cession of experiences is more under the control of the second 
person. By moving the eyes slowly or rapidly he can regulate the 
speed with which the verbal stimuli are presented. The receptor 
process for graphic stimuli is called reading. The resulting mental 
states are thoughts with occasional imagery. 

The distinction between ordinary sensory stimuli and verbal 
stimuli is important. The physical material is the same in both — 
sound waves or light waves; but their central effect is radically 
different. This is illustrated if we have some one read us selections 
from a book in some unfamiliar language, interjecting here and 
there an English phrase. Or we get the effect when we glance over 
the pages of a Japanese book with an occasional English quotation. 2 

Nature and Types of Thought. — The ideational states of civilized 
man consist almost wholly of thoughts. The word "horse" is for 
most of us the dominant feature of the horse-idea. We picture 
vaguely the appearance of horses, their movements, the sounds 
which they make in galloping or neighing; but the central feature 
in our idea of a horse is the name or word. 

For some individuals a word is preeminently a sound ("Horse"). 
For others it is the adjustments of throat and lip muscles, with the 



i Oddly enough there is no English word which denotes the process exactly. 
Comprehension is used here in a slightly technical sense. Understanding in- 
cludes both comprehension and reading. 

2 Beading aloud is a further complication of the communicative process. 
The reader acts as a "relay" between the imparting and the receiving 
individuals. 



184 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

kinesthetic sensations which they arouse. For others it is the 
printed word as it appears to the eye ; or it may be the kinesthetic 
sensations of writing the word. In many cases the experience com- 
bines two or more of these factors. When we think of a horse the 
verbal symbol of whatever sort forms the chief component of the 
thought — the other elements lie dim in the background. In abstract 
thinking (2+2=4) verbal symbols constitute practically the whole 
experience. 

Since words bear no similarity to the objects for which they 
stand, they are better material to work with than general images. 
When new varieties of a given species are discovered the general 
image may require considerable reconstruction, but the verbal name 
does not. The general image of "swan" had to be quite made over 
when black swans were discovered, but the word was unchanged, 
except for adding a "dot of black" to the mental background. 

In civilized man general imagery tends to be supplanted by sym- 
bolic images or thoughts. Your idea of specific objects and beings 
may be a free image, with the name a minor feature of the experi- 
ence. The idea of your chum, your dog, your watch, is probably a 
sort of composite picture of many perceptions ; the name William, 
Rover, "my watch", is a relatively unimportant element. With 
ideas of general classes or sorts of things or events the opposite is 
true. Here it is not the general image, but the symbolic name that 
plays the chief role. When you think of paper, stairs, piano, dress- 
ing, eating, dinner, etc., the image of the thing or act is relatively 
unimportant — the word is the dominant part of the experience. 
The association between the name and its object is firmly fixed in 
the individual because it prevails in the community generally. The 
arbitrary nature of words appears strikingly when we move into a 
community where an unknown language is used. 

Imageless Thought. — Recently there has been considerable dis- 
cussion among psychologists in regard to "imageless thought". A 
number of careful investigators report that their thoughts lack 
entirely the character of imagery. Others are inclined to question 
these reports. The conflict of opinion is probably due to different 
interpretations of the term imagery. Popular usage applies the 
term almost wholly to visual data. In psychology organized audi- 
tory, tactile, and kinesthetic ideas, so far as they exist, are called 
images. But the kinesthetic verbal elements may not be images at 
all ; they may be actual sensations. It is quite possible that for 



APPENDIX 185 

some individuals thought consists wholly of kinesthetic sensations — 
or nearly so. For such persons the thought of a horse may consist 
of adjustment of the larynx and other vocal muscles preparatory 
to uttering the word "horse". It is then a sensory mental state, 
not an image. 

For most persons "external" ideas of sight, hearing and touch 
enter into the thought experience. When any summation of nerve 
impulses occurs, modification takes place. On the subjective side, 
when any combination of mental data occurs there is a process of 
transformation. Hence, as thoughts develop the components are 
gradually transformed, till at length the "thought" state comes to 
be wholly unlike the ' ' image ' ' state from which it is derived. This 
is especially the case if several different types of imagery enter into 
the thought. In the end the thought is likely to lose the distinctive 
character of each type ; the experience then becomes a composite, in 
which the several sense-modes are fused together into a new qual- 
ity. One may readily test whether this is true in his own case by 
examining certain typical thoughts. Possibly "imageless" thought 
is due to this transforming process. The original image compo- 
nents may become so transformed in the course of time as to lose all 
recognizable semblance to any sense qualities. 

Meanings and Values. — The experience called meaning is part of 
the thought state. Meaning comprises those elements in the thought 
which are not symbolic, but which resemble the object or situation. 
When we think of man the symbol or word forms the central feature 
(focus) of the experience. Along with the word there may be in 
the background or margin of the thought a fleeting image of some 
specific man or of certain human characteristics. These non-sym- 
bolic factors in the experience constitute the meaning of the 
thought. 

When the neural impulse which we observe as a thought experi- 
ence occurs in the brain, these image components are aroused 
simultaneously with the symbolic elements; they give a "tinge of 
reality" to the experience. This imagery tinge is the meaning 
consciousness. In other words, the meaning of a thought comprises 
those elements in the experience which correspond to the object or 
situation, as distinguished from the mere verbal or symbolic ele- 
ments. When we endeavor to examine the meaning of a word, 
what happens is that these marginal elements become focalized. 



186 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

The psychological character of meaning may be observed by com- 
paring the mental state aroused by "meaningful" words with 
nonsense. There is a vivid tinge of imagery for most of us when 
we see or hear such words as sacrament and delicious, which is miss- 
ing in luntosity and pelegation. No meaning attaches to the visual 
presentation of the sentence: "Isle of use wheat tart"; but the 
auditory presentation of the same sentence fairly glows. 

Psychologically speaking, the value experience is similar in type 
to the meaning experience. Meaning comprises the ideas of certain 
qualities of an object or event ; value consists of ideas of intensity, 
duration, and other quantitative characters. We stated that an 
image differs in intensity from the perception which it represents. 
The same is true of a thought. We can compare the intensity of 
two perceptions, feelings, or conations, and repeat the comparison 
in imagery and thought. If we associate the words "six ounces" 
with one lifted weight and the words "four ounces" with another 
lifted weight, we have the wherewithal to compare the intensity of 
these two experiences when they are reproduced as images or sym- 
bolized as thoughts. Such quantitative ideas are attached to per- 
ceptions, images, and thoughts. They usually enter into thought 
experiences as mere marginal elements and constitute the value- 
coefficient of the experience. When we think of an object or event 
a slight "value tinge" attaches to the symbolic word, in the same 
way as the meaning tinge attaches to it. This is especially the case 
with thoughts in which quantitative characters are prominent. My 
thought of a certain book is usually tinged with some such idea- 
tional elements as large or small, long or short, difficult or easy 
reading, true or false. When these ideational elements become 
focal, the state becomes a value experience. 

Value experiences which involve social situations are generally 
rich in systemic components. The thought of a good or bad action 
is generally accompanied by the feeling of desire or aversion. There 
is also in most cases a kinesthetic tinge other than the language 
component. We tend to act upon the value experience. Where 
these hedonic and expressive components are focal, the experience 
is no longer a thought, but belongs to the class called ideals, which 
will be discussed presently. Some writers confine the term value to 
this higher mental development. But value experiences of the 
higher type appear to be essentially the same as the thought of long 



APPENDIX 187 

or short, quick or slow, etc.; they are best understood when re- 
garded as an outgrowth of these lower stages. 

It should be noted that the ideational values of an experience may 
be quite different from its perceptual or sensory values. A "triv- 
ial" event from the perceptual standpoint may "loom big" in our 
scheme of life when regarded from the standpoint of thought and 
social relations. And again, the ideational value of an experience 
may vary widely in different circumstances. At one time we may 
attach slight value to some event, such as the killing of a usurper ; 
later we may come to regard it as a turning-point in history. 

It appears, then, that there is not so close a correspondence be- 
tween the "objective" values of situations and events and our 
subjective experiences of value in the sphere of thought, as in the 
sphere of perception. As psychologists we deal only with the value 
experience; it belongs to the economist, the artist, and the moralist 
to adjust our appreciation of situations and events to the "value" 
of objective reality. 

To sum up, meaning and value are primarily those elements in 
the thought which correspond to the object or situation outside of 
ourselves which aroused the original perception. Meaning is the 
component in an experience which corresponds to qualitative char- 
acters of things, while value corresponds to their quantitative 
characters, such as intensity, duration, size. As our thought life 
advances, the feelings, conations, and social situations induced by 
perceptions take on meaning and value elements also. In most 
ideational experiences the meaning and value components are ob- 
scure and marginal, but at times they become attended to or focal- 
ized. This leads to the specific types of thought known as meaning 
and value experiences. The thought itself may be not of a man, but 
of his ethical value ; we may think not of a political procession but 
of its social significance. 

Rational Thought; Concepts and Judgments. — Conception and 
judgment constitute a higher level in the development of thought. 
These states are known as rational thought. In rational thought 
the meaning elements or the value elements become focalized; the 
verbal elements do not become marginal, but they are less distinct 
than in ordinary thought. 

The thought of an object or event in which the meaning or value 
is thus focalized is called a conception or concept. When I think of 



188 THE PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH 

a horse with the meaning uppermost, certain characters, such as 
vertebrate, ungulate, wagon-pulling, domesticable, are in the focus 
of the experience. The concept of horse is a thought in which some 
or all of these meaning elements are more vivid than the verbal 
symbol. When I think of four or short or stocky the thought is a 
value concept. 

A judgment is a mental state which combines two concepts, that 
is, two meaning or value elements, both of which are focal. The 
fusion of two thoughts does not constitute a judgment unless some 
of their meaning elements are similar. The thought of man com- 
bined with the thought of a horse may produce the thought of a 
centaur, but this is not a judgment. If, however, we combine the 
concept of a horse with the concept of vertebrate, we obtain the 
judgment, "Horse — vertebrate," — or as it is generally expressed in 
language, "A horse is a vertebrate," or, "All horses are verte- 
brates." When we think of a certain light and of intensity and 
combine the meaning with the value, the resulting thought is the 
judgment, "This is bright." 

If both of the focal elements are meanings the experience is 
called a meaning judgment, if one is a value, the experience is a 
value judgment. Judgments are also classed as particular or uni- 
versal, according as the leading component is due to a single per- 
ceptual stimulus or is a generalized thought derived from any 
experiences. In particular judgments one of the focal components 
may be a perception, instead of an idea. Here is an exceptional 
case, in which a perception forms part of a secondary mental state. 
Since thought tends to expression in language, both types of 
rational thought have corresponding types of rational expression. 
The language equivalent of a concept is a term; the equivalent of 
a judgment is a proposition. The thought "horse — black" as a 
judgment may be instantaneous, but as a proposition the experience 
begins with one term and the other term arises later. This experi- 
ence involves succession of mental states. 

In examining these higher developments of thought the psychol- 
ogist is concerned only with the nature of concepts, judgments, 
terms, and propositions as mental states, not with the science of 
logic as such. If our analysis is correct, a mental judgment does 
not consist, as many logicians believe, in the discovery of relation- 
ships among "classes". As a subjective experience a judgment is 



APPENDIX 189 

a combination of certain meanings or values which attach to 
thoughts. A proposition is the expression of this rational experi- 
ence in language. The formation of concepts depends upon simi- 
larity in meanings or values, and this similarity may usually be 
traced back to similarities among perceptions. 

Role of Thought and Language in Mental Life. — It is scarcely 
possible to exaggerate the importance of thought and language in 
the mental life of man. On the receptive side they give a finishing 
touch to the integrative process ; on the motor side they perfect the 
coordination of activity to a far greater degree than conation and 
volition. They transform the central adjustment process into 
rational control. They furnish two new modes of intelligent beha- 
vior, communication and rational expression of thought, over and 
above the trial-and-error learning of subhuman species. Taken to- 
gether they provide a tremendously effective mechanism for the 
adaptation of response to the conditions of the environment. 

More than any other mental state except perhaps emotion, thought 
and language must be studied in the light of their history. But 
whereas emotion is a survival from ancestral conditions, thought 
and language are brand-new human acquisitions. They are still in 
the making. 

An important feature in the growth of language is its slow evo- 
lution in the race and its rapid development in the individual. 
New words arise phylogenetically by a gradual process, as the sphere 
of thought in the race enlarges. Once adopted they are transmitted 
to the bulk of individuals in the community and are readily learned 
by children or adolescents. Much the same is true of thought. The 
growth of thought depends intimately upon the existence of words. 
If the vocabulary of a community is scanty its range of thought is 
limited. 

Given a rich vocabulary, the best organized individuals in the 
race quickly attain a wide range of thought. In the sphere of 
thought, more than in any other type of mental state, we find tre- 
mendous individual differences in capacity and development. Such 
differences appear especially in the realm of rational thought. 

The development of thought and language in the individual de- 
pends not only upon the social environment, but upon inherited 
nerve structure. To bring about these mental states the higher 
receptive centers must be connected by association tracts with vari- 



190 THE PRINCIPLES OP SPEECH 

ous motor centers. Gesture language depends for its development 
upon the ready establishment of connections between the visual 
center and the center for arm and hand movement. Vocal language 
involves inherited pathways between the auditory centers and the 
centers for vocal expression. Writing involves pathways between 
visual or auditory centers and those for finger movements. The 
intricate inherited organization of human cortex accounts for the 
superiority of the human cognitive life over that of lower species. 

— Howard C. Warren. 



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